Lonely Planet Italian Phrasebook

I travelled alone in Italy for one week, and this little book was so helpful...referenced it again and again during my visit. It came in handy for practical situations travelers always encounter...directions, menu verbiage, and basic conversation with locals. It also helped in more specific situations...for women traveling, this will help you formulate quick responses to the "ciao bellas" you'll receive. Bene!

i carry it everywhere, when in the states or italy- great and easy set-up, extremely comprehensible pronouciation tips and helpful/useful blurbs about not-so-well-know (by the outside world) cultural practices, lingo, actions, etc. pleanty of categories, and explanations that make learning bits and peices easier to understand- cant say enough good!

Let's be realistic, a phrasebook isn't going to teach you the language. I mean, what if you can actually use it to ask directions for your hotel? THEN WHAT? You won't be able to understand the answer anyway!!! At that point, you're better off just learning "Mi scusi, parla inglese?" (excuse me, do you speak English?). Still, phrasebooks are useful to decipher menu items and for emergency situations. For instance, when you need to find a pharmacy because you've been walking too much and now your feet are full of blisters! How do you say "bandaid"? There you go! I give this book to all those who come with me on my trips to Italy, it's wonderful, light-weight, easy to look through.

We used this book for our trip to Italy and I found it to be a very big help. Also the small size made it easy to stick in my pocket and carry all over without looking like tourists. Now we tried to learn as much Italian as we could before we went over so we didn't need it for very basic words but it was great when we didn't understand some words while eating or in museums. It is split into different topics so its easy and quick to find things about shopping, eating, hotels, trains, etc... I really didn't try to use it if I was trying to have a conversation with a fluent speaker as I don't think it was really made for that purpose. So overall I found this book to be a huge help, but let me also suggest trying to learn as many basic words as possible. It will make things quicker and easier.

I went to Italy two summers ago with no previous Italian. From reading over the phrasebook I learned a great deal of Italian and was able to communicate with people in everyday situations (buying subway tickets, ordering food, directions, etc.). This book contains way more than just your basic "touristy" phrases and was really helpful, especially the index of Italian foods. I would recommend this to anyone going to Italy or anyone who just wants to learn a few phrases. There are some parts of the book that you won't use but I still think that its a really good deal and contains a lot of good information.