The Italian language exists (technically and ideally) since about 1300, from Dante on, when the so called "volgare" (the language born from Latin, spoken by uncultured people, while Latin remained the language of culture) was given a literary dignity (The Divine Comedy was in fact written in Italian). Of course, being a living language, it was quite different from the current one. It developped through centuries, and literates have been discussing the so called "Language Question" for ages. The question was about what form should the literary language have. The question was somehow solved in XIX century: the real Italian should be the language spoken in Tuscany by the literate people. It is true that the dialects spoken throughout the Peninsula are very different but they are just the basis on which the Italian language was built. The expert tell that a real linguistic unity was achieved thanks to the "television era".