learn SOME Italian

The basic phrases in Rick's book are sufficient in Italy, it's not like France. Italians who interact with tourists as part of their job seem to prefer to switch the conversation to English, our Italian is probably painful to their ears. If you wanted to pay attention to saying the few things you do say with decent pronounciation, by listening to CD's, that would probably be appreciated.

English is widely spoken in Rome and Florence, especially by those working in hotels, restaurants and tourist sights. It's always nice to know and use some polite phases (e.g. grazie - thank you and prego - you're welcome), and to ask "Parla inglese?" (Do you speak english?) rather than assuming they do. I've learned some italian and find it very helpful, but you could get by for a week in those 2 cities speaking only english.

Always, always, learn the basic courtesies in the local language. In Italian, they're not hard. But you will generate enormous good will by saying hello and please in Italian.

I think it's always courteous to learn the basics of the language when you visit a country, and in Italy my attempts at Italian seemed to be appreciated, and I think I got better service for trying. However, whenever I'd ask something in Italian, the reply invariably was in English, so I guess I wasn't fooling anyone, LOL.

I guess it depends on what you want your trip to be like. At major attractions, at your hotel, at restaurants popular with tourists they speak English because they depend on the income from English-speaking customers. However if you want to break away from the main routes, duck into a small shop that catches your eye or place to eat catering to locals, learning a small amount of Italian would pay huge dividends. The way I recommend is using the Pimsleur series; they come in sets of 15 half-hour lessons (1A, 1B, 2A, etc) and most people need to repeat each lesson twice to really get it. Even if you only do the 1st 15 lessons you'll know the basic courtesies, how to order something, ask how much you owe, etc. Borrow it from your local library.

Suzanne, I found some wonderful basic Italian lessons on iTunes and downloaded them to my ipod. I used them to learn some basic phrases, and it was very helpful.

I also invested in a CD lesson I found at Costco for about $24.

Search iTunes for Italian lessons and I think you will be pleased, it's free, and I think it's a courtesy to learn some basic words- and very helpful.

I highly recommend mastering SOME key words & phrases, not only to help make your trip smoother by means of effective communication, but also because it seems, to me, to enhance your overall experience. One way to do so is to use the Steves' language book (or any other) and make index cards with the key phrases you want to use, Italian on one side, English on the other, and practice them before your trip commuting to work or over morning coffee, any time you find yourself still with time to occupy. This works for high school kids studying for language exams, and can work for you, too.

My husband and I are going for a couple of weeks in October. (His first, my second) We logged on to our library site and are using the Rosetta Stone program. Very easy and convenient to use from home at our convenience. Best of all, Free!