Abstract
In the present contribution we discuss the challenges and the results of learning a second language in South Tyrol, the multilingual border region in northern Italy where the autochthonous German- and Ladin-speaking communities have cohabited with the Italian-speaking community since the end of the First World War. The picture resulting from the data collected in the Kolipsi project (Eurac/DiScoF), an extensive linguistic and psychosocial investigation about South Tyrolean secondary school pupils now in its second edition, gives precious inputs to all entities that intervene in the process of attitude formation and change, ranging from the family environment to politics.