Sure but don't forget English has gone through a long period of uniformising the language during which the dominant influence has been The East Midlands variety.With English, differences are mainly a matter of pronunciation and very little of the vocabulary changes from place to place. With Italian, there are important differences in vocabulary as well. You need both to really have something be a different dialect. However, I am told that these local differences in Italy are fading with time.
Earlier in history that statement would not have been as true as the areas of England began developing their individual versions of the language of the settlers, which in itself was not one common dialect of Germanic but various.
That Italy is going through the same is unsurprising given that universal literacy and communications allied to population mobility are all factors that work towards uniformity.
I'm not at all surprised. I was in Romania last summer and the level of English, especially among the young people was surprisingly high. But all the foreign films and programmes are in the original language with subtitles.I have heard that Moroccans can often understand people from Egypt (or at least the ones from the major cities), but not the reverse. This is because people in Morocco are used to watching Egyptian television and movies, while there is little going the opposite way.
I live in Catalonia teaching English and the best students are those who regularly watch TV in English. Also the Catalans all speak Spanish and there is a lot of Spanish TV watched alongside Catalan Tv, but it's a rare Spaniard who can understand Catalan.
Each region would have spoken a related but different language or dialect. "Italians" at that time were a group of related peoples, not a single nation. In addition, part of the south had been colonized by the Greeks or Phoenicians, whose language influenced that of the natives in their area. Sicily is an odd patchwork of dialects as a result of this.
Agreed, but it is the tendency that I was referring to. Local patois, whether a different language, dialect or accent can be limiting if you move outside the area, or come from outside, so knowledge of a common denominator is necessary. That is true just as much in the UK as in a place where language or dialect is more marked. In the UK it is easier as the language has been more uniformised that I will agree.
As noted where I live a Catalan, or Basque or Galician can move around Spain communicating in Spanish, but a Spaniard in Catalonia, or Basque Country, or Galicia cannot understand the locals unless they use the common denominator, castellano. That may be a similar case to what was found in Italy as you say.