I'm constantly watching old historical film footage such as the classic stuff from British Pathe and I ran across this today. Not only is Mussolini speaking English but I was also surprised by his kind words for the USA. Then again, this footage is from 1929 so a full 12 years before the USA entered WW 2.

At the time there were a bunch of people in the US and UK who had nothing but good things to say about him as well.

in Italy as in most of Europe , speaking English, German or French was and is very common, most people try to be somewhat fluent in at least two of them.

if you really want to succeed in Europe - speaking half a dozen languages reasonably well is a must.