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How to Learn Italian

Italian is spoken by about 63 million people, in Italy, the Republic of San Marino, Vatican City, the Swiss Canton Ticino, Slovenia and Croatia.
Italian and English share a large number of words; Italian sounds like it is written, making it much easier to learn than English and French which have irrational spelling conventions.

Books for learning Italian (on this page)
Software for learning Italian
Italian On-Line Dictionaries (on this page)
Italian Translating (on this page)
Italian Radio and TV (on this page)
Italian Newspapers and Magazines (on this page)
Italian Websites, Portals and Interesting Links (on this page)
Italian Search Engines (on this page)
Websites for learning Italian (on this page)
This page was last updated April 15 2008.

Italian Books

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Italian in 10 Minutes a Day

By Kristine K. Kershul
Excellent pictures and simple text get you started with Italian with minimum effort.
Inspect/Order Italian in 10 Minutes a Day

Ponti: Italiano Terzo Millennio: Intermediate Italian

By Giuseppe Cavatorta
It's not for the very beginner. It is excellent for use with a teacher. Learn about modern Italian language and culture with real situations which encourage you to speak Italian.
Inspect/Order Ponti: Italiano Terzo Millennio: Intermediate Italian

Adesso!: An Introduction to Italian (with Audio CD)

By Marcel Danesi
Teaches meaningful communication in the Italian language. You will learn to speak Italian and to function in a variety of situations. Grammar is taught in order to support understandable communication.
Inspect/Order Adesso!: An Introduction to Italian (with Audio CD) from Amazon.com

One Reader's Favorite Books for Learning Italian

Italian I Full Size 30 Lesson Course

By Pimsleur
Italian Audio CD. The best way to start learning on your own. Published March 1, 2002. About $218.
Inspect/Order Italian I Full Size 30 Lesson Course
Click here for Audio Cassette edition

Italian II Comprehensive, Second Edition

By Pimsleur
Audio CD. Use this after Italian I Comprehensive. Full Size 30 Lesson Course. Published November 1, 2003.
Inspect/Order Italian II Comprehensive, Second Edition
Click here for Audio Cassette edition

Ciao! (with Audio CD)

By Carla Larese Riga
Gives you the Italian language skills that you need to join Italian life and culture. Grammar is presented clearly when you need it.
Inspect/Order Ciao! (with Audio CD) from Amazon.com

Italian III Comprehensive. Second Edition.

By Pimsleur
Audio CD. Use this after Italian II Comprehensive. Full Size 30 Lesson Course. This is the latest course. Some of the customer reviews for this course at Amazon DO NOT APPLY TO THIS COURSE, since they start BEFORE the course was available. Published October 1, 2005.
Inspect/Order Italian III Comprehensive. Second Edition.

Dictionary of Italian Slang and Colloquial Expressions

By Daniela Gobetti
Hundreds of colorful Italian expressions used in Italy today but not by descendents of immigrants living in the USA.
Inspect/Order Dictionary of Italian Slang and Colloquial Expressions

Way Cool Italian Phrasebook

By Jane Wightwick
A fun book that shows how to talk like an Italian teen. Of course, if you are NOT an Italian teen, you'll sound funny.
Inspect/Order Way Cool Italian Phrasebook from Amazon.com

Italian I Comprehensive

By Pimsleur
Italian Audio CD. This is the older course, published in 1999, available thru Amazon's other sellers.
Inspect/Order Italian I Comprehensive
Click here for Audio Cassette edition

Italian II Comprehensive

By Pimsleur
Audio CD. Use this after Italian I Comprehensive. This is the older course, published in 1999, available thru Amazon's other sellers.
Inspect/Order Italian II Comprehensive
Click here for Audio Cassette edition

Italian III Comprehensive

By Pimsleur
Audio CD. Use this after Italian II Comprehensive. This is the older course, published in 1999.
Inspect/Order Italian III Comprehensive
Click here for Audio Cassette edition

Learn Italian the Fast and Fun Way

By Marcel Danesi

For Italian Beginner's Class. Alphabet, pronunciation, meeting and greeting, words used in everyday life. The present tense of verbs.
Great for self-study or for use with a teacher. Published 2003.
Inspect/Order Learn Italian the Fast and Fun Way

Learn Italian the Fast and Fun Way w/4 CDs

By Marcel Danesi
For Italian Beginner's Class.
This a book and audio CD set. It will help your pronunciation and listening comprehension. Published December 28, 2007.
Inspect/Order Learn Italian the Fast and Fun Way w/4 CDs

Essential Italian Grammar

By Olga Ragusa
A short and clear summary of the grammar of Italian.
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Italian Business Dictionary

By Morry Sofer
Modern business terms for banking, the internet, computers, accounting, insurance, real estate, taxes.
Inspect/Order Italian Business Dictionary

Just Listen 'N Learn Italian

By Giovanni Carsaniga
Good for listening comprehension. Doesn't teach you Italian. This is good for hearing how Italian is actually spoken.
Inspect/Order Just Listen 'N Learn Italian

Speaking High Frequency Italian/ 6 Cassettes

By Mark A. Frobose
Teaches you the most common words, phrases and structures. Most readers like this course, a few have petty criticisms.
Inspect/Order Speaking High Frequency Italian/ 6 Cassettes

Check to see if any new books have been published on Italian: Books on Italian at Amazon.com

Italian for Children

Making Friends in Italy: An Italian Phrasebook

By Andrei Paleologo
A handy, useful, low cost book that makes it easy to look up Italian pronunciation, grammar, numbers, time expressions, metric measurements, common occupations and food and drink.
Published April 2005.
Inspect/Order Making Friends in Italy from Amazon.com

2001 Italian and English Idioms

By Robert A., Jr Hall, Daniela Gobetti
This thoroughly revised new edition translates the most frequently used Italian and English idioms and phrases in two separate bilingual lists. Phrases are alphabetized according to each one's key word for quick reference.
Inspect/Order 2001 Italian and English Idioms

Italian Quick and Simple

By Pimsleur
Audio CD. A short course in Italian. This will acquaint you with the Pimsleur method. If you like the method (most do) you can go on to the Italian Comprehensive courses.
Inspect/Order Italian Quick and Simple

Harry Potter e la Camera dei Segreti 8 Audio Compact Discs

By J. K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in Italian.
Inspect/Order Harry Potter e la Camera dei Segreti 8 Audio Compact Discs from Amazon.com

Harry Potter e il Prigioniero di Azkaban

By J. K. Rowling
For kids of all ages. All the fun rhythm of the original "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban".
Inspect/Order Harry Potter e il Prigioniero di Azkaban from Amazon.com

Harry Potter e il Calice di Fuoco

By J. K. Rowling
For kids of all ages. A translation of "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire". A fun way to practice reading Italian.
Inspect/Order Harry Potter e il Calice di Fuoco from Amazon.com

Acquerello Italiano - Audio CD Magazine

By Champs-Elysees
Every two months you'll receive an audio CD in Italian containing news, interviews, music, and features on topics ranging from politics and current affairs to sports, travel, film, and opera-- in Italian spoken by native speakers. It comes with a glossary explaining all but the simplest words and expressions so you can know what you are hearing and learn the language.
You can choose the edition with the supplement, or without supplements.
Inspect/Order Acquerello Italiano - Audio CD Magazine

Streetwise Italian Dictionary/Thesaurus

By Nicholas Albanese
About 2500 slang Italian expressions, organized with an index and dictionary so that you can know what you are being called and find a suitable reply! Pictures of typical Italian gestures.
Inspect/Order Streetwise Italian Dictionary/Thesaurus

Here are some books with CD's for those who are past the beginner stage. For the more advanced learner. We think it's a good idea to have audio so that you get to hear good Italian being spoken.

Italia Contemporanea: Conversations with Native Speakers. Book and DVD

By Ceil Lucas
Ordinary people speak Italian on a DVD video. The conversations are written in the book as well. Hear different accents. Learn about a variety of subjects in modern Italy.
Inspect/Order Italia Contemporanea: Conversations with Native Speakers

Ultimate Italian: Advanced (Audio CD)

By Living Language
There are no customer reviews at this time.
Inspect/Order Ultimate Italian: Advanced (Audio CD)

Advanced Italian (Audio CD)

By Berlitz
Three audio CD's. This will be available in August 2008.
Inspect/Order Advanced Italian (Berlitz Advanced) (Audio CD)

The Assimil method for learning languages. It's worth waiting for delivery.
Assimil Italian

Search here for books and audio tapes to learn Italian.

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Italian On-Line Dictionaries
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Italian dictionary From WordReference.com. Quite good. Knows that an English word has several meanings! Also gives expressions containing the word. Gives meanings for English classifiers such as "ear" (of corn) and "cake" (of soap)
Italian dictionary From Foreignword.com - Dictionary Search Tool - DictSearch - Search on-line
Italian-English Online Dictionary From langtolang.com
English-Italian Dictionary From Babylon.com
Italian dictionary, English and other languages From Frasi.net
Italian-English Dictionary From Allwords.com Definitions in several languages. Related idioms.
Online English-Italian Dictionary From freedict.com
Online Italian Dictionary From Ultralingua.net Also other languages. Well designed, but not complete.
Dictionary. Type in an English word, it gives meaning, synonyms in English, plus Italian and several other languages. From Answers.com
Italian Etymological Dictionary From Etimo.it Gives derivations of Italian words
Italian Synonym Dictionary From Alice.it
Italian Dictionaries From Sapere.it
Italian Dictionary, Verb Conjugator By Logos.it Definitions, translations, antonyms, words in context. A lot of interesting things on the site. Stay around and browse.
Translation dictionary, Italian + other languages By Woxikon
Language Dictionaries By Anthony Goubard useful dictionaries with many different language pairs

Italian Translating
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Italian / English translator From FreeTranslation.com
Italian / English translator From Langenberg translation

Italian Radio and TV
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Internet broadcasts change their addresses frequently. These were accurate as of March 2008.
Italian Radio and TV From RAI
Italian radio From RAI. Listen on line
Italian TV Euro News in Italian Videos are free. Live TV is not free.
Italian Videos RAI Click TV, Videos
Italian TV Rai TV news 24
Italian TV From Ilsole24ore
Italian TV TG1 From Videolina
Italian radio From Vatican Radio. You can listen on line.
Italian radio From Vaticanradio. You can listen on line. Does not appear to be an official site of the Vatican. Has links to online Italian radio.
Italian Radio Stations From Radio-locator.com
Italian Radio, several stations from Rai Radio. Listen online
News Videos in Italian By zoomin.tv Right click on the image, then select Speed, then Slow. It actually slows down the speech and makes it easier to understand.
Italian Radio from Radio Japan. Listen online
Italian radio From Vatican Radio. You can listen on line
Italian podcasts From RAI. Listen on line
Italian Radio Several stations from Rai Radio. Listen online
Italian Radio From Comfm
Italian radio From InternetRadioIndex.com
Italian Radio From Web-Radio 2000
Italian TV From Comfm
Italian TV, list of stations From Broadband-television.com
Italian Radio and TV, list of stations From Italiamia
Italian Radio From Radioitalia.8m.com Many links
Italian Radio and TV From Radioitalia.it
Italian Radio and TV From Broadcast Live
List of broadcasters from many countries. By Open Directory Project
Italian Radio List of broadcasters from Italy. Listen online. By Romavera.com
Italian Radio, list of stations from ituner.com. Listen online
Italian Radio and TV Watch live TV on the Internet.

Italian Newspapers and Magazines
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Italian Newspaper La Nazione, Il Giorno
Subscription to Il Giorno Newspaper From Amazon.com
Italian Newspaper La Stampa La Stampa
Subscription to La Stampa Newspaper From Amazon.com
Italian Newspaper Corriere Della Sera
Subscription to Oggi From Amazon.com
Subscription to Ciao From Amazon.com Book, film, food reviews from Italy
Italian Newspaper Affari Italiani Affaritaliani
Italian Online Newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore Il Sole 24 Ore.com
Italian Online Newspaper America Oggi America Oggi Italian newspaper published in the USA.
Subscription to America Oggi From Amazon.com
National Geographic Magazine in Italian Nationalgeographic.it
Subscription to National Geographic Magazine in Italian From Amazon.com
Italian Newspapers and Magazines From AllYouCanRead.com
Italian Newspapers and Magazines From OnLineNewspapers.com
Italian Newspapers From MIT libraries
Italian News From Diario.it News and commentary
Italian News From Espresso
Italian News From Italiamia
Italy Magazine By Italymag News of Italy, interesting articles on Italian culture.
Scientific American magazine, Italian edition Website Le Scienze
Italian Online Scientific magazine Website Focus

Italian Websites, Portals and Interesting Links
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Italian President Quirinale.it (Giorgio Napolitano)
Italian National Anthem Quirinale.it (Scroll almost to end))
Italian National Anthem From Italian Ministry of Defense Listen online
Italian Government Governo.it (Silvio Berlusconi, presidente del consiglio dei ministri, prime minister and head of government)
Italian Parliament Parlamento.it
Italian Senate Senato.it
Italian Camera dei deputati Camera.it
Italian Constitution From ICL in English
Italian White Pages from Paginebianche.it.
Italian Yellow Pages from Paginegialle.it.
Airports of Rome from Aeroporti di Roma
Italian Railway (FS) from Ferrovie dello Stato. Reserve online.
Italian Search Engine and Portal Virgilio
Italian Portal SeeItalia
Italian Portal Porto
Italian Portal Italplanet
What time is it in Rome? from Horlogeparlante.com.
Books about Italy
Italian Cheeses from Cheese.com
Italian Gifts from this site
Tourism in Campania from Medivia.it Click on Neapolitan songs to listen and see the words in Neapolitan dialect.
Naples area photos from Foto.portanapoli.com
Naples area webcams from Portanapoli.com A few work.
Bay of Naples and Vesuvius Webcam from Grand Hotel Aminto
Vicenza Webcam from Webcam.vicenza.com
Venice Webcam from Turismo.regione.veneto.it
Venice Vaporetto Routes from Europeforvisitors Taking a "taxi" on the Grand Canal in Venice!
Venice Trachettos from Europeforvisitors Crossing the "street" in Venice: take a traghetto acros the Grand Canal in Venice!
Venice Travelers' Information from Europeforvisitors Transportation and Parking in Venice. Air, boat, car, train.
Rome Webcam from Naturamediterraneo.com
Italian postcards from Cartoline.it
Daily newsletter about Italy from Italian Notebook

Search Engines in Italian
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Italian Search Engine and Portal Virgilio
Italian Search Engine Libero / Italy on line
Italian Search Engine Google in Italian
Italian Search Engine Yahoo in Italian

Websites for Learning Italian
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Italian Lessons Online From About.com
Learn Italian online with the BBC
Learn Italian online By abruzzo2000
Italian online Tutorial By Salim Short, but quite good!
Good Italian tutorial. Almost a complete course From Italiantutorial.com
Italian contractions. Prepositions and articles here such as a + il = al
Italian grammar online By TKWukitsch
Italian Course Online The Italian Electronic Classroom By Centro Studi Italiani
On Line Italian verb conjugations By Verbix.com
On Line Italian verb conjugations By Italian-verbs.com
Examples of Italian Verb Conjugations By "Catherine and Massimo"
On Line Italian tutorial From Tiscali.co Great Italian phrases, grammar, pronunciation
On Line Italian Course From Italiansrus.com Chapter 2 is good on pronunciation.
On Line Italian Course From Centro Studi Italiani
On Line Italian Course From RAI Great videos and scenarios with sound and written text
On Line Italian Course By Ursula Bedogni in Italian.
Italian sounds at languageguide.org Choose a topic. Place mouse cursor over a word or picture.
Good Italian Pronunciation Guide From askoxford.com
Italian sounds Hear the sounds of Italian at Fonetiks.org Click on "ma" "mia" "maiale" "v/fino" "gnomo" "innato".
Italian Hand Gestures From About.com
Italian slang and very impolite language By Alternative Italian Dictionary. Crude
On Line Encyclopedia in Italian From Wikipedia
On Line Italian Readings From Scuola d'Italiano Roma Great for use in Italian classes!
Easy readings in Italian from DueParole online magazine with short articles in easy Italian.
Read books online in Italian By Project Gutenberg Includes the Divine Comedy
Italian Proverbs From Italiansrus.com
Italian Proverbs From Wikiquote
Fun English/Italian picture dictionary from Enchantedlearning.com
The Words of Italian Christmas Carol Ges� Bambino here
How to make a telephone call in Italian From Centro Studi Italiani Phonetic spellings of Italian words. Scroll to bottom.
ALT key Codes for Italian From Penn State University How to type Italian characters in email.
Type accented Italian letters by Tomasz P. Szynalski Type Italian letters with their accents. You can copy and paste into a Word document!.

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