Pimsleur equals success. Just one 30-minute lesson a day gets you speaking and understanding like no other program.

This course includes Lessons 1-16 from the Italian Level 1 program - 8 hours of audio-only effective language learning with real-life spoken practice sessions. Each lesson provides 30 minutes of spoken language practice, with an introductory conversation, and new vocabulary and structures. Detailed instructions enable you to understand and participate in the conversation. Practice for vocabulary introduced in previous lessons is included in each lesson. Topics include: greetings, numbers, meals, shopping, telling time, scheduling activities, and asking and giving directions. The emphasis is on pronunciation and comprehension, and on learning to speak Italian.

The Italian Language

Italian is the official language of Italy and San Marino, and one of the official languages of Switzerland, Croatia, and Slovenia. Italian is spoken by about 58 million people in Italy, 24,000 in San Marino, 840,000 in Switzerland, another million in other European countries, and approximately 5 million in North and South America. Historically, Italian is a daughter language of Latin. Italian uses the Roman alphabet and the pronunciation of the language follows the spelling very closely.

"Pimsleur programs provide plenty of positive reinforcement that will keep learners on track, and we found that Pimsleur gave us more proficiency and confidence in speaking the new language than any of the other language programs we reviewed." - AudioFile Magazine

"EXTREMELY ACCESSIBLE...each section within the lessons is short enough to hold our attention, and there is enough repetition to teach even those who consider themselves slow learners...Pimsleur [programs] are extremely thorough and easy to use -- quite lively!" - Boston Herald

"Learn French while commuting, German while jogging, Spanish (or Russian, Italian, and Japanese) while cooking all with NO WRITTEN MATERIALS!" - New York Daily News

"Designed for the ear and not the eye...the lessons provide PERFECT 30-minute bites of work." - St Louis Post-Dispatch

"Learn to habla español or parlez français before your next trip aboard. The interactive LESSONS CHALLENGE STUDENTS to use new words in conversation instead of memorize them." - American Way (American Airlines inflight magazine)