English is not widely spoken in Italy as a whole. 73.5% of European countries have better English skills than Italy. According to the EF English Proficiency Index, Italy is ranked #25 out of 34 countries in Europe for English language proficiency and 30th in comparison with the world’s top 100 countries that have English speaking populations. Also, the 2012 Eurobarometer report shows that about 29-34% of Italians, on average, have learned English as their second language and according to the 2019 English Proficiency Index, Italians are the second-worst at speaking English across the European Union after the Spaniards. The exceptions, of course, are around universities, tourist sites and the big cities like Rome, Milan etc.