learning some Itialian

Agreed. Taking a class is the best way. You can't beat the interactivity. If that's not an option, there are various language learning software programs, of course.

Pimsleur has good CD courses for learning languages. I did Courses I & II in Italian and learned quite a bit. Your local library may have it and also the Learn In Your Car course. I did the latter in French and liked it a lot. I don't recommend Michel Thomas for Italian; his French course is good, but not Italian.

Check into BBC Language Courses.

Check your local community college for a class called "Italian for Travellers" or similar title. We found one of these classes before our first trip to Italy; it was one night a week for six weeks, and was really helpful. I liked having an instructor and actually saying (and hearing) the Italian words. We found it much more helpful than the computer-based Italian course which we also tried.

Dennis,

As the others mentioned, using night school classes or recorded lessons such as Pimsleur or Rosetta Stone are your two best options.

I've used both methods and prefer night school classes although they're not always available in this area so I've had to rely on Pimsleur. One advantage of night school courses is that a "live" Instructor can help with correct pronunciation.

I've taken Pimsleur Levels I to IV and find that I can manage reasonably well in Italy. However it's important to review them from time-to-time, especially prior to trips.

I've just registered for a French Level I course at night school, as I expect to be travelling in a French-speaking area on the next trip.

Cheers!

I also recommend a college (community college) course, if possible.

Also, I highly recommend the series of books called "Mastering 'Italian' Vocabulary" (or: 'French', 'Spanish', 'German'). This $10 book (Amazon.com) has chapter headings such as 'The Human Body', 'Eating and Drinking', 'Clothing', 'Social Relations', 'Tourism', etc. and each section within the chapter has a basic and advanced grouping of vocab...You can 'Look Inside!' this book on Amazon.com. There's an index in the back of the book that lists ALL of the ITALIAN words in the book for easy look-up, should you see an Italian word and need to look up it's meaning, plus a list of verbs and a small section on grammar for reference. It's very similar to Rick Steves' phrase books in some ways, but just much more in-depth.

And just an aside on phrase books - many people report not liking phrase books, and/or not being able to find what they're looking for (usually in a hurry). In order for a phrase book to work well for you, you really need to spend some time with it in order to learn how it works - where in the 'Food' section is the main course meat descriptions without first having to wade through the cheeses and various types of beverages...

Mainly, make sure you've got the basics - hello/goodbye, please/thank you, Mr/Miss/Mrs, good morning/evening, etc. They are absolutely the most important words to master. Everything else is gravy.

Hello Dennis,

All of the advice below is good. I took classes in Italy on two occasions. If you have extended time it is a fun way to immerse yourself in the culture. If not, check out www.meetup.com and search for Italian language groups in your area. Another good option is to check out www.mylanguageexchange.com. I hope this helps, and enjoy Venezia!

Will

It is polite to know a little rudimentary Italian just in case you encounter a situation where someone you interact with does not speak English very well, if at all. As long as you can get them to understand the message that you are trying to get across and vice versa, you will be OK. I use Rosetta Stone.

Almost the same advice as for German. Not as many Italians speak English as Germans. Many English speaking Italians aren't nearly as fluent as Germans.

Learning Italian can pay off more than learning German. The locals seem really appreciative when a tourist speaks some Italian.

We took a Fall trip from Amsterdam through Germany and Austria then down into Italy ending in Rome. If I had to do it over I would go the opposite way in Spring. Transitioning from English to German was fairly easy. Trying to transition from German into Italian was harder although I was often complemented on my "l'Italiano".

I have used the Pimsleur series and recommend it. It is expensive, but most libraries have a copy you can borrow for free.

My experience with nite classes seems to run contrary to those of other posters; I would not recommend it. The problem is it meets 1 nite a week so you have 2 hours (less a break) to cover the material. In my class, at least, that meant the instructor barely had time among the other class activities to read thru the vocabulary list at the end of the chapter we were learning. Read thru it once, that is. If you have a great auditory memory I guess that works for you, but my problem was I didn't speak italian so I didn't know how to pronounce the words by just reading them; some letters or letter combinations (ch, etc) are different then in english. In contrast with the tapes you are constantly hearing and learning the correct pronounciation.

BBC Steps courses are fun & free!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/italian/lj/

The Steps course is such a small commitment of time and effort (and cash!) that your chances of sticking with it a quite good.
Give it a go! I did it before our trip and it really made a difference. It's amazing what a chuck of everyday words a mere 200 or so words can be.

Also a good site for learning Italian in general
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/italian/

Michel Thomas has an 8 disc course on learning Italian. I used it in 2003 and again in 2008 (checked it out from my library). Studied about 8 weeks in advance of the trip. I supplemented with other "travelers Italian" cd's from the library. I am able to have simple conversations with Italians and it is fun. Michel Thomas teaches sentence structure and many verbs. The "travelers" cd's teaches important words that he does not. (names of the days of the week, counting, food names, etc.) The first words you need to learn are Lentemente por favor (slowly please) I found on both trips that I could make requests easily but understanding the quick flow of words coming back at me in response was much more difficult. While many Italians speak english, some do not. We had several situations where our group of 4 was completely dependent on my Italian. (local markets were the most fun.)

There's a App for that! :-0

I found a travel bookstore that offered Italian language lessons in the basement after the shop closed. Look for advertisements in shops, delis, civic groups or anywhere else you might associate with Italian. FWIW, the six week course I took in Italian was really worth it: the added connection I made with locals by being able to speak to them in their language really made the trip for me.