Spanish and Italian are very similar, if you learn one you are half way to learn the other 🙂
I'm American, I just developed a curiosity for various languages at a young age because most of my neighbors were from all over the world and I was always curious as to what they were saying
So I studied several languages 🙂 But I have forgotten a lot and so now it is a combination of what I can remember and cheating a bit with the translator