Natural languages are primarily spoken, making the study of prosodic structures and variation—namely intonation and rhythm—crucial for our theoretical understanding of the organization and functioning of linguistic systems. Using natural speech collected in real-world contexts and laboratory data, analyzed with both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, the project aims to investigate: (a) rhythmic and intonational structures and their relationships; (b) the phonetic aspects of prosody; (c) the relationship between prosodic structures, syntax, and pragmatics; (d) the social, stylistic, and geographic variation of prosody; (e) prosodic contact between varieties; (f) prosody in bilingual speakers. These topics will be addressed by examining both production and perception data. The research focuses on Italian varieties and, more broadly, the Italo-Romance domain. However, the scope can extend to include other linguistic varieties, examined from a contrastive perspective.