Expert Latin speaker leading Northern Italy tour guides (8)

I believe the answer is:

ciceroni

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'tour guides' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'expert latin speaker leading northern italy' is the wordplay.
'expert latin speaker leading' becomes 'cicero' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'northern' becomes 'n' (abbreviation e.g. N. Ireland).
'italy' becomes 'i'.
'cicero'+'n'+'i'='CICERONI'

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(Other definitions for ciceroni that I've seen before include "tour guides" , "guides for tourists" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.

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