Belated reply and belated thanks!
Yes, it was the OS7 on VMware that was in Italian, not English. It still is.
The link you provided is helpful for a normal case, but I'm at a new impasse: the solution requires that I access the internet to update Windows 7 but there is only a LAN connection available from within the VMware Windows 7. This means I can't directly update the copy of Windows 7 that's being hosted by VMWare. The laptop itself is running on Windows 10 so I can't use it to gain access to the language file I need, and it seems as if Microsoft isn't releasing the files separately for me to download on Windows 10 and transfer to the VMware Windows 7 via a shared folder. The only way Microsoft offers to add a language pack fie is through the update process.
There IS an option to install a language file from within the "Language and Region" Control Panel, but I haven't found a method of obtaining the English file. Perhaps there's another way.
But of course this is not strictly a VMware question anymore. I may need to find a way to get the WiFi network working on the VMware in order to be able to directly update the Windows 7.
In any case thanks for your input.