Map: Pinpointing Italian Dialects

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The dialects spoken in Italy can be divided into four main groups:
Northern
Tuscan
Central
Southern.

The Northern are distinguished as follows:
Gallo-Italic, spoken in Piedmont, Liguria, Lombardy and Emilia, and so called because in these regions lived the Gauls; and Veneto.

The Tuscan dialects are distinguished:
Central, spoken in Florence,
Western, spoken in Lucca, Pisa, Livorno;
Southern, spoken in Siena and Arezzo.

The Central dialects are:
Northern Lazio; parts of Umbria; Marche

The Southern dialects are as follows:
Neapolitan, spoken in southern Lazio, Abruzzo, Campania, Basilicata and northern part of Puglia; and Sicilian, spoken in Salento, Calabria and Sicily.

In addition, there are several other dialects: 
Sardinian dialects (Sardinia)
The Istrian dialects (Istrian coast)
Ladin dialects in Friuli, Dolomites.

Each of these sub-classes of dialects can be  broken down further into hundreds or thousands of local dialects. Still today, it is possible for hilltop villages within sight of each other to speak different dialects.