Language question for Italians + Spaniards

A friend of mine is wondering if a Spanish speaker speaking Spanish in Rome would be understood by Romans.

I’d guess not. I know that it works between Catalan and Italian - at least it used to work for friends of mine, one would speak Catalan and the other one Italian, and they obviously had no problems communicating. I don’t think it works between Spanish and Italian.

We wouldn’t mind a native speaker confirming that. Or telling us that we’re wrong.

TIA
Iris

Depends how patient the two people are.

The languages are similar, but obviously different.

I was living in Spain and went on holiday with a group of Spanish friends to Italy. I ended up speaking English to the Italians on behalf of my Spanish friends, cos otherwise they couldn’t be understood.

I took Italian in college and my professor told me that, yes, Spaniards could, in general, understand what he was talking about when he spoke Italian to them.

I’m not a native speaker but am functionally fluent in Spanish. And although I don’t have a lot of experience with it, the one or two times I tried it leaves me with the impression that if you speak very slowly and are patient with each other, a certain amount in a widely varying range, between say 20 and 60%, can be communicated, depending on whether the words for a particular topic or the expressions chosen by the speakers happen to be close in the two languages. The same is true if Spanish speakers see written French (but not if the French is spoken). But the native speakers with more experience can probably give a better answer.

I’ve seen Italians being understood speaking Italian in Latin America. I’m not Spanish or Italian however I have a few Mexican relatives.

I thought the Romans were wiped out and squeezed into Italy years ago.