local language variables to use in code for queries(NOT GLOBAL LANGUAGE)
If the user is logged in, you can the global $user variable. The language object is then $user-&gt;language. For an anonymous user, you can use a session variable or a cookie. There's a module to use cookies: Language Cookie

To use a session variable:
On the "Detection and Selection" configuration page, set "Session" as the first detection method. To set up the variable, click the "Configure" link on that page. You should see


Then you just need links to set the user's language. Something like

http://yoursite.com/?language=en and http://yoursite.com/it?language=it
at the top of the page.