There are Rhaeto-Romance dialects spoken in Switzerland (called collectively Romansh) and some in the Tyrolian Dolomite section of Italy (called Ladin). They are most closely related to a Romance language (or Italian dialect, depending on your politics) called Friulian. The Italian filmmaker Pasolini wrote poetry in Friulian. I've heard another Romance language, Sardinian, called the most conservative. Non of the Romance languages are close to Latin, in that most of the latter's distinct grammatical characteristics have disappeared or been highly modified: i.e., the loss of case in the nominal system and the massive changes in the verbal system. What is usually meant is that Romansh and Sardinian have preserved some Latin sounds (i.e., velar stops do not become palatalized as they do in French, Spanish, or any of the other majority Romance languages abecome fricatives or affricates).

For further reading on Romance languages and linguistics, you might want to find: W.D. Elcock. 1975. The Romance Languages. Also, there's a collaborative site called Orbis Latinus.

Welcome aboard; hope you stick around.

Ceci n'est pas un seing.