After the Second World War, the Italian Republic adopted in its system the principles of regionalization and decentralization. This was largely due to the separatism of ethnic and regional groups within the territory of the country, and particularly concerned the islands of Sicily and Sardinia and border regions: The Aosta Valley, Friuli Venezia Giulia and Trentino-South Tyrol. Until the end of the 1960s, the latter was the site of a strong ethnic conflict between a group of German-speaking Tyroleans and a dominant Italian-speaking group. The situation of the Rhaeto-Romance (Ladin) group living in the Alpine valleys remained somewhat aside from their confrontation. The violence used by both sides led to a solution unique for the Republic. The transfer of a large part of the competences down from regional to provincial level led to a gradual calming of the situation. Today, the Tyroleans enjoy broad autonomy in the province of Bolzano, where they are a dominant group, and, at the same time, have a strong influence on the functioning of the entire region through statutory guarantees of their participation in the regional legislature and executive power. The rights of the Italian-speaking minority in South Tyrol are similarly and proportionally protected. The rights to preserve the language and culture of all three language groups are also widely protected by law. The purpose of this article is to examine the principle of protection of the Tyrolean minority’s rights as an example of the implementation of the principle of the protection of linguistic minorities’ rights, present in the Constitution of the Italian Republic.