Italian Online/App?

Live Mocha is good and pretty inexpensive. You speak to the computer, read the words, and a native speaker(s) will critique your pronunciation. If you do it every day you'll be able to function quite well by Spring. livemocha.com

Angie,

There are all kinds of language courses available. A few that you might consider.....

• Night school courses - check your local College or whatever to see if they're offering any Basic Italian night courses this fall. I've found that's a good way to learn, as the Instructor can critique pronunciation and grammar.
• Pimsleur - these are an audio course, available in four levels from very basic to more advanced. You won't become fluent with this method, but should be able to get by nicely. That's the method I've been using, and I've found it to be a convenient way to learn a language.
• Rosetta Stone - some people like that method, but a lot of it is computer based and there's no way I want to sit in front of a computer to learn a language. There is an audio portion also, but I believe you have to take the whole kit to get that. It's also very expensive.
• Online - you could check Live Mocha as mentioned in the previous reply, BBC or other sites.

You'll find that many people that deal with tourists will be able to speak some English so you certainly won't have to become fluent in Italian. Of course, it's always good to be able to use the polite common words (please, thank you, good morning, etc.).

Happy travels!

I got the Pimsleur CDs at the local library and listened to them several times.
I found this to be a very good basic course in Italian conversation.

I like the earworms app. They've got lots of phrases set to music and for me this really sticks in my brain. I got the French one and it definitely helped me with ordering in a restaurant. You can sample on their website:

Earworms

There is also a free website called Duolingo that you might try.

http://www.duolingo.com

Fodors, BBC, and Travlang, foreign languages for travelers, all have many languages with key phrases pronounced. www.acapela-group.com has a free demo where you can type in any word in most languages and it will be pronounced for you by 2-3 different voices. We always start off in the native language wherever we travel and it always gets us the best service.

I like OpenLanguage. You can listen to podcasts or get the full lesson. Podcasts are free, some sample lessons are free, or there is a small subscription fee for full access. I used the Italian one before this years trip and it was helpful.

A freebee is Italianpod101.com. You can download their lessons and then make playlists as you like. Pretty much unlimited access to all their lessons for the first week so you need to spend some time downloading the audio and video files during that time. After that the free access is limited.

I used the lengthy Pimsleur program - after I used the short program. I was disappointed that I never got enough of the verg congugations, etc. for really speaking.

Seems ironic to me that most language programs teach you to say, "I speak _____" as one of your first
sentences! Especially when they're teaching good pronunciation! You DONT speak Italian, or whatever.

Better to learn how to ask for directions, like dove' ...and then to be able to understand when the
person replies: around the corner, or two blocks, turn right....etc.

This is what I learned from Live Mocha.

I also went to Barnes and Noble and bought children's work books with crossword puzzles, etc., as crazy as it sounds, and these were very helpful. Pimsleur was Great for pronunciation!

Most hotels/train stations, etc will speak English, not so bus drivers, some restaurants, and people you meet
on the street.