I begin my dream to Italy on June 21st. I am so excited! I really want to have some language skills for my trip. Can anyone recommend a tutorial for a tourist?

Thanks!

Congrats on your upcoming trip; you are going to love Italy!

We used, among other things, Fodors Italian for Travelers. The package came with a travel dictionary and a CD. The CD was great way to learn Italian while sitting in rush hour each day! It does a pretty good job with the basics.

I also used a few few softwear packages, but I didn't really care enough for any of them to recommend them.

Tracy

For my trip to Paris I used "In-Flight French"; they have a similar CD for Italian. It wasn't a comprehensive language course by any means, but it had phrases that most people would commonly need on a trip, like "Could you recommend a good restaurant?" or "Where are the tourist attractions?". It was enough to get me by in Paris (along with a phrase book), but not too much that I got confused. I recommend it.

Try this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/italian/index.shtml

At the beginning of my "learn to speak Italian" adventure, I relied on Fodor's Italian for Travellers. I still listen to it sometimes.

My next purchase was Living Language, which I didn't like.

After that, I bought Pimsleur's, having read about here. I really like Pimsleur's.

I have also take a couple of Community College classes. I recommend these, as the interaction was great.

We took an adult education class taught by a wonderful man from Abruzzo. It was very inexpensive and I think it was helpful to hear the language spoken in person. He also taught us several phrases which I haven't found so far in my Pimsleur CDs.

I agree with the bbc website suggestion - try it!

find a class. or if you choose to study at home you really must speak and practice out loud. that's the most important part. words in your head don't help, they gotta come outta your mouth (with ease)!

Has anyone tried Rosetta Stone? They sell it in a lot of airports.