A bit early for an incoming HS freshman to tour colleges, but if he’s interested, then go for it. Most of them (Ivies) are very pretty.
Allow a student perspective.
As a European student proficient in Italian and Spanish, my recommendation is: let him take whichever he wants. Yes, Spanish is most useful for the medical professions. Indeed, for a resident of the US, it’s the most useful for most professions. However, he is in 8th grade. His career path may take a turn in the next few years. And let’s be honest - HS Spanish will not be enough to be proficient in communicating with patients. Unless you live in a very heavily populated latino community where he will have opportunities to speak Spanish outside of school, proficiency will only come after spending significant time living abroad.
While Italian is more limiting, it does open the door to more fully appreciating the wonderful world of Italian cinema, music, art, literature, etc.
I would caution that, while a school offers a language now, there is no guarantee in a language other than Spanish and maybe Latin, that the language will be offered his senior year. If there is only one teacher of that language and she is in her 60’s - red flag; that language potentially will be cut 1 nanosecond after she retires.
I really doubt that Italian (or Russian or Arabic, etc.) will give him a leg up in college admissions. And like with so many other things (sports, music, etc), that really should not even be a thought in anyone’s mind. The child should learn the language/play the sport/learn the instrument because he’s really into it, not because some anonymous AO may be impressed.
I don’t think having or not having an AP language is a deal breaker for colleges either way as long as you have other AP classes. Also I don’t really think colleges care which language you take. Italian is rarer but so what. Schools that want or need Italian speakers can enroll foreign students. It is very hard to do well on the SATII in Spanish because of the native speakers but that’s true of Italian too I’d bet. Let him take the language he wants.
My D takes Latin and loves it but mostly because at the advanced levels it’s basically a literature/philosophy/history course.
I am a senior in high school taking college classes at UIowa already (although I am going to be at URochester soon).
I started learning French when I was four years old. I completed AP French in my sophomore year of high school. (I am fluent, if you were wondering). I am taking a refresher oral speaking course right now.
Right now I am hungry to learn more languages. I’ve been listening to newcasts from other countries and studying a few on Memrise.com in my spare time (outside of engineering classes).
The reason I say this is because French has really help me appreciate foreign language and culture. It was an easy language for me and as a result, learning Spanish right now is easy too (though I am not a fan of Spanish). The thing is, WolframAlpha lists French as the 12th most spoken language in the world. I have had to visit college campuses in the US to find people who spoke French at my level. I would still learn French if you are planning on trying another language afterwards. I have a friend who is a junior at Uiowa and she started French fresh in freshman year and her speaking ability is surprisingly good. French IS doable but may not be worth it if you have no plan on being connected with France or a French community in America.
I am going to be minoring in Russian during my time at Rochester because my mother is a Russian immigrant. After Spanish and Chinese, Russian is the most spoken language in America. I am not advocating for Russian because it is very hard to learn and some who try have given up. However, Russian culture is probably my favorite, especially because of Russian literature like A Hero of Our Time. I personally want to be able to read it in original Russian.
All I am saying is that I recommend learning a language that has a base that is connected to others, like Spanish. If you are learning it at the high school level first, I highly suggest continuing it in college to improve fluency (as I am sure there will be some natives there too). That is my feeling since I care about the ROI of the languages I learn.
PS. If you wanted a specific choice, I would say Spanish + Russian. I know they are different but they are equally important in this world.
If he wants to take Italian, he should take Italian.
Yes, it really is that simple.
Personally, I feel like if he isn’t interested in languages it won’t matter what language he takes in high school. In my case, I guarantee the schools I applied didn’t look at what language I took (I’m currently at a top 100 school). I applied as a science major that clearly had a strong interest in math/science. The extra STEM classes I took in high school and other interests I had (sports, helping special needs people) were what admissions officers looked at. If your son is not particularly interested in languages, there is no point in making a big deal about a language he is likely to forget in a few years. Let him pick whatever language he feels is most interesting and have him focus on activities and subjects he is actually interested in.
Spanish. Very widely spoken and being in a health care field I wish I had learned it.
Another vote for letting the student study what he wants.
I would try to investigate the teacher and the atmosphere of the classes. At our high school, we have an extraordinarily good Latin program. IDK Y. I think studying a living language would be more useful, especially Spanish, but given how outstanding the Latin program is, I can see why kids are attracted to it. In your case OP, Italian seems less useful, as much as I love all things Italian, but perhaps the teacher and program are unusually strong at your child’s school. I wouldn’t choose it for the AP points, but I would choose it for the quality of the program.
he should choose what he’s interested in.
For med school, he’ll be able to work on one language in college. Beside Spanish, ANY language widely spoken by an immigrant community where the college is located, is fine. So, Creole French, Russian, Somali, Urdu, Chinese, Hmong, Susu… Not all will be offered at the college and that’ll reduce the odds of learning them, but there’s always a possibility somewhere. Honestly, since he’s in 8th grade, I wouldn’t worry about something that may or may not happen 8 years from now. 
Overall, it’s important to study a foreign language and become as strong in it as possible as it’ll forma basis for learning this language in-depth in college or for learning another language.
The choice of language won’t impact his chances for admission to an ivy, so i would encourage him to take whatever language interests him the most. Ap or Honors level reached isn’t going to make a difference either. Please keep in mind that you can’t know what any college is looking for. Nothing will serve your son better than being his own person without the fear of doing or not doing the ‘better’ thing. On a side note, I would recommend you get a feeling for the quality of teaching for the different languages, if possible, as that could weigh in on his decision for which language would be most enjoyable to learn.
Which one does he actually want to learn? That’s the one I would take. Either an honors class or an AP class would be competitive and rigorous for a top school - AP classes are not the only way to get into top schools. But more importantly, not everything he does in college should be geared towards getting into an elite college. That’s too much pressure - he’s only in 8th grade and he’s already basing decisions around college admissions.
It doesn’t matter which one he takes. He should take whichever is interesting to him and what he feels will be useful.
If he wants to be a doctor, knowing Spanish will be more useful than “differentiating” oneself. For truly it is not important to go to an Ivy League to get into med school. Let him differentiate himself with his ECs. Also, to be practical, if he is taking hard math/science courses, then having the language be a little easier won’t be a bad thing. He should just take 4 years of it.