Have you ever heard of Ladin? No, not Latin, Ladin. They are related, but we’ll come to that later.
Despite thinking myself quite au fait with Italian regional identities–I’ve long enjoyed trying to decipher the Neapolitan dialect used in L’Amica Geniale and have diligently picked up a few Tuscan sayings over the last couple of years–my first encounter with the Ladin language came later in life, in a taxi from Bolzano station into the Italian Dolomites of Trentino-Alto Adige.