Every living being has always managed to develop a way of communicating in order to interact with the rest of the world: a means of expression that conveys needs and feelings. In this context, mankind, maybe due to a very special protein, managed to develop this means of communication and turn it into language. At the moment there are 6,900 spoken languages in the world today; Italian is spoken by about 70 million people and is placed 19th on the world language chart. A language which makes use of English and French words and which is in constant evolution. This documentary will be exploring the roots of the Italian language, to discover how it was born and how it spread. This exploration will also feature a visit to the vault of the St. Clemente Basilica in Rome, where there is a fresco featuring one of the first examples of the vernacular language. Filming will take place in Milan, Florence, Rome and Turin, the site of the first Italian parliament, to attempt to explain the difficult relationship between Italian political and linguistic unity. Important steps toward linguistic unity have been made by schools, in the military service, in factories, and the widespread use of radio and television. Young people and scholars recount the struggles involved in the use of contemporary language and the way new technologies are changing it.