I'm leaving for Italy in a few weeks. How much Italian do I need to know?<BR>A few years ago I traveled to Denmark. Studied the lanuguage for months ahead of time...but, when I got there found it really wasn't necessary...though I never regretted the knowledge.<BR>So, anyway, I'm wondering what YOUR experiences have been in Italy regarding language.<BR>Thanks.

You don't need to know much Italian. Most Italian's know some English.

If you are sticking to the major tourist cities, you can certainly get by without knowing much, if any, Italian. I'd still get a phrasebook and try to learn the most basic phrases: hello/goodbye, please/thank you, where is..., do you speak English?, etc.<BR><BR>If you are headed for smaller villages and/or south of Rome, it is definitely helpful to know a bit of Italian, though people are generally very kind and patient and you could still manage with a phrasebook.<BR><BR>Buon viaggio!

PS: If you click on the &quot;Resources&quot; tab at the top of this page, there is a link to a page where you can both see and *hear* the basics.

Agree with Lesli - much more helpful in smaller areas to know the language at least a little, tho this is a 2-edged sword as Italians speak Italian very rapidly so if you know a little they may assume you know more and, even after 3 yrs of study, while I can make myself understood I have a lot of difficulty understanding what people are saying to me. Definitely learn please, thank-you, good day, good evening, and, do you speak English. And remember, if you're going to be driving there, the road signs are in Italian!

Hi hipchic,<BR><BR>In the major cities, you will have no problems. As Leslie indicated, I found the farther south we went, the less English was spoken, but in tourist places - hotels etc, they still did. It is always useful to know some of the basics, just to be polite. <BR><BR>The worst I ran into was when our tour bus driver wanted to take my friend and I out to a club, and he brought a friend who didn't really speak English. We had fun, but I ended up spending most of the night trying to talk to him in broken Spanish, because we both knew some Spanish. Very taxing on the brain, as I hadn't spoken Spanish in about 12 years, but now I have a funny story to tell!<BR><BR>Have fun!<BR>Karen

I've been in lots of places where I heard absolutely NO English spoken at all and where I saw few if any other foreigners. This was true everywhere I went in Basilicata and in many places in Sicily. Most middle aged and older adults had learned French in school rather than English. Younger adults who had learned English well usually ended up leaving the small towns to find jobs elsewhere, often in the north or in foreign countries. In medium sized towns in Umbria, I generally spoke Italian to everyone. However, if I had not known any Italian, I know that with a little effort I would have been able to find people who spoke or at least undertsood English, some extremely well (MUCH better than my Italian), and some not so well and not so comfortably. <BR><BR>In general, I would have enjoyed my visits to these places much much less, and would have had at least some practical difficulties as well, if I had not been able to speak Italian. <BR><BR>On the other hand, in Florence, before I even opend my mouth, some shopkeepers and hotel desk clerks spoke english to me. A friend in Milan told me that Italians in the cities are so used to foreigners, and so many foreigners use englishj as the common language when traveling, that if someone simply doesn't look &quot;local,&quot; many people in the tourist industires will, if in doubt, sinply address the person in english.

There will be absolutely no comparison between the amount of English you encountered in Denmark, where it seemed universal, and what you'll find in Italy, where it's common but still sporadic. On my last trip to Italy, I obtained, about a month before going, the Lonely Planet Italian language book -- don't recall exact title, but it's pocket size. Then, to study, I made about a 3-4 page list of essential words, and I wrote out the conjugation [1st and 3rd person tenses] for several key verbs. I committed it all to memory, and was actually able to hold coherent conversations. For example, in a travel agency in Rome where I needed to make various train reservations, the staff spoke no English at all, yet we completed our transaction, albeit haltingly on my part [and I dazzled my companions]. Plus, it's kind of a fun thing to do. I still have my crib sheet.

Do you know any french or spanish? Many of the words had similarities. we went to Italy last summer with very minimal italian.just remember &quot;grazi and grappa&quot; and you'll be fine!

Even in major tourist destinations like Venice, Florence, and Rome, if you explore away from the popular tourist areas, the amount of English spoken drops rapidly.

Oops, forgot to add that we found the Italians to be very patient and helpful even when we didn't have a common language. As others have said, if you stick to the most popular tourist areas, you'll have almost no language difficulties. But sometimes heading away from those tourist areas and dealing with the difficulties can be very fulfilling, and fun.

My personal experience is that it really, really helps to know at least some Italian when travelling in Italy! It's not like Denmark or Germany or countries like that where just about everybody speaks English quite well. In Italy most people don't get close to that level. Even if you speak Italian badly or with a lot of effort, it will be very much appreciated and people will respond in a friendly and helpful way. And it's not all that difficult - if you know some French or Spanish you'll get by in Italy.

Because you leave in &quot;a few weeks&quot; there's only so much you can do!<BR><BR>I love the suggestion of writing up your own cheat sheet. Get a phrase book and maybe a small dictionary. I might respond differently but there's only so much you can learn in such a short time (from a person who's been attempting to learn Spanish for *years*).<BR><BR>With a smile, positive attitude, open mind you won't have problems (at least I never have traveling where I did not speak the language).

Hi Hipchic. We were in larger and touristed places in Italy last year (Venice, Rome, Siena, and Vernazza) and got by fine knowing only the basics in Italian.<BR><BR>It never *hurts* to try to learn as much of a foreign language as possible, but it's also often not necessary.

I do speak some German (had 5 years of it between high school and college), and found that it really helped on our trip to Germany last June. Makes me wonder what we missed in Italy because neither of us could speak Italian--beyond the basic stuff everyone should try to learn wherever they go, that is.