This Italian phrase book offers far more than it promises, is easy to use, and quickly seems to offer precise solutions to the problem of the moment, whatever it may be. My wife and I made extensive use of it.

I don't speak any Italian, so this guidebook was a bit of a lifesaver. I don't like to refer to books when I'm trying to experience the culture, but it was nice to be able to review this at the end of the day or in the morning before we started the day. I tried to learn a few important phrases and feel my way through the rest. We visited Venice, and most people in Venice do speak English. While I can confidently speak French, Italian is quite different (more akin to Spanish). I love the pronunciation guides; they were most helpful.

I don't speak any Italian, so this guidebook was a bit of a lifesaver. I don't like to refer to books when I'm trying to experience the culture, but it was nice to be able to review this at the end of the day or in the morning before we started the day. I tried to learn a few important phrases and feel my way through the rest. We visited Venice, and most people in Venice do speak English. While I can confidently speak French, Italian is quite different (more akin to Spanish). I love the pronunciation guides; they were most helpful.

Has all the phrases you could ever want/need while traveling to Italy! The phrases are written in both English and Italian and include phonetic pronunciations for each word and phrase.

I would highly recommend buying this for your travels to Italy.

The hard to find words in the Italian vocabulary are presented here...there is something for everyone. If you are cussing out an Italian driver--ordering a meal--visiting a museum--or asking for directions--Steves provides phrases and words for you!

Rick Stevens has written a book with all kinds of useful phrases and lots you may never need but will laugh at while reading.

It seems that Americans buy books such as these in great numbers. They are generally a waste of time. If one observes how most foreigners speak English when they visit us, we might try to emulate them when we go abroad. Italian is not a particularly difficult language to learn; there are many cognates with English....and Spanish and French. You will enjoy foreign travel so much more if your vocabulary can be extended beyond "Where is the Post Office". In fact, with laptops and e-mail, no one really uses the post office very much these days. Get some tapes and listen to them on your commute; take an adult ed. course, but these phrase books, which looked cute 50 years ago when post-war Americans started discovering Europe should now be considered obsolete.

I have gotten half way through Rick Steve's Italy 2008 and part of me feels like I've already been on vacation. I plan on taking the book to Italy when we go as a reference guide. The book is simply written therefore easy to understand, plus it's witty. I am sure it will be a huge help on our trip in June. We also purchased Rick Steve's ITALIAN phrase book and dictionary, that will accompany us on our trip as well!

I like this Italian guide because it is pocket size (so I can carry it in my Pocket and HAVE IT WITH ME! when I need it) and because it includes more useful phrases than other guides (I don't need to know how to say "Where's the Vatican" I DO need to know how to tell the Taxi to SLOW DOWN! and this guide tells me how, in a way that makes sure the driver listens!

I like this Italian guide because it is pocket size (so I can carry it in my Pocket and HAVE IT WITH ME! when I need it) and because it includes more useful phrases than other guides (I don't need to know how to say "Where's the Vatican" I DO need to know how to tell the Taxi to SLOW DOWN! and this guide tells me how, in a way that makes sure the driver listens!

Rick Steves has done it again. The organization of this book is perfect. It's very useful and has tons of helpful phrases. Plus, it's witty and fun to use. I recommend using a cd to learn some basic Italian and to practice pronouncing the language. Then use this phrase book while you're travelling, and you'll be able to ask for directions, decipher a menu, and charm the natives.

This is a great guide book that I can stick in my travel bag while in Italy. I love it!!!!

Rick does a great job with all his travel materials and this is no exception. The book can definitely be a lifesaver when trying to communicate. There is good effort on Rick's part to get the phrases and structure passable without getting bogged down in grammar. Like Rick says, "you will be stringing together words in caveman like language in no time." He also has some fun stuff in the book that will make you laugh. I paricularly liked the descriptions for the quantities of alcohol- from a pint to a barrel he has you covered!

We have been using Rick Steve's books for many years. This latest phrase book is the best ever. An especially important section is the part on opposites which has proved very useful. It is organized very well and we would not be without it on our trips to Italy.

Again - Absolutely BRILLIANT!

Highly reccommended to anyone going to Italia*

I spoke very good Italiano when I lived there in the 70's - but a bit rusty now - and my husband doesn't speak any at all - this is a must for Italia and Rick Steves' does it for us - as well as his books on Italy and Florence - Brilliant author - he covers everything you would need to know to visit this Beautiful country

We are having a blast going through the book and learning new phrases/words for our trip to Italy.

Rick adds some great funny lines as well as the ones that you will NEED to get along in this wonderful country

I really like this book. It is organized really well and provide useful phrases. The size is great too. I'm going to Italy and will keep it handy. I would recommend it!

Having traveled in Italy extensively I find that an Italian/English dictionary is more useful than this combination. And smaller. Many Italians speak more English than you can speak Italian. I've used Rick Steves Guide books for years. They are great. Save your money. Don't buy this but buy an up to date guide from Rick.

I love it.
I purchased three. Myself and two of my best friends are going to Italy in October. We all love the book and will be bringing it to Italy with us.
Love it, love it, love it. Thank you.
Great price also.
Chow,
Cheryl Mclean

I am planning a trip to Italy in September of 2007 and will be using Rick Steve's book extensively. It is easy to use and includes all the vocabulary and phrases that someone who is not fluent in the langauge can readily refer to. Ciao....Shelley in Sarasota

I love it.
I purchased three. Myself and two of my best friends are going to Italy in October. We all love the book and will be bringing it to Italy with us.
Love it, love it, love it. Thank you.
Great price also.
Chow,
Cheryl Mclean

My husband and I just return from a 2 week trip to Italy and found this book to be EXTREMELY handy! We didn't know any Italian and this book got us around and taught us all the basics. The best thing is how the book is broken into sections. The train and taxi sections were especially handy when we found ourselves stuck at a train station in a small Tuscan town that didn't have any taxis! The book helped us communicate with a little old Italian man who spoke no English but was happy to drive us to our villa! Thanks Rick!

A little book containing a ton of information. A necessary item for anyone planning a trip to Italy!

If you are not traveling with tour guides, this book is a must. The best and easiest guide on the market! I bought a few different guides as to not miss anything, this book gave me 90% of what I needed!

This is a great, small (i.e. perfectly sized for travel) Italian phrase book. Everything by Rick Steves is great.

This is a wonderful pocket guide for real converstaional phrases... travel words & phrases, hotel info, menus and even pick-up lines. Easy to use it will stay in my pocket for my entire trip to Italy.

My girlfriend and I recently spent 5 weeks traveling in Italy and found this book to be extremely helpful. It is broken up into sections that help you in all situations. It almost walks you through the conversation. I would suggest picking it up well before your trip and study it some or you will still be lost. Most Italians can speak the english language much better than you can read Italian from a book. Pronunciation is very important to them, so if you do not get that right it won't make sense to them anyways. You will find that it is easier to speak english most of the time, but it is nice to have a general understanding of the Italian language and use that for greatings and general situations.

I love the Rick Steves Travel books so I bought this and the German language book to try out. I'm very impressed and highly recommend them. They're small and thin so they fit in your back pocket. The books contain just what you need - nothing more, nothing less.

Easy to navigate and find the scenario you're in so you can respond or ask the right question quickly.

So many other language book writers could learn a great deal from Rick's books.

FYI for language book writers:
- read Rick's books and imitate them;
- we're on vacation - make the book small! That's right, not text book size!
- and, we're not trying to learn to speak the language - we just want to avoid ordering bacon bits on our favorite gelatto. Keep it simple!

Make sense?

This compact little book has everything you would ever need to travel alone in an Italian speaking destination. It's extremely well organized, easy to use and completely charming and amusing. Besides all of the usual things you might expect from a phrase book and dictionary,where else will you learn the local profanity, words to Italian songs, and how to tell a driver that, if he doesn't slow down, you are going to throw up?

The book arrived very fast and in new condition.

I received this after my trip and was told I would be receiving a return authorization, but I have not received it.

Very good easy to use ans can be carried with you

I ordered this book for our trip to Italy and took it everywhere with me. It provided all of the phrases that we needed to get around Rome as well as travelling through the Italian countryside where few people spoke English. It is packed with great information and practical advice, yet small enough to carry around with me.

This book was difficult to use when trying to translate an Italian word. There is no single lookup, but rather chapters on various topics. I waded through these chapters when looking for a word, but was never able to find any of the words I was looking for. These were frequently seen words also. For example, you would think the chapter on driving would include frequently seen road signs, but it doesn't.

Rick Steves' Italian Phrase Book and Dictionary is a must buy for anyone desiring to use a refreshing and easy-to-use reference of commonly used Italian. Rick's Phrase Book is 'category intensive'. This is useful for the individual who desires to only use Italian in 'category specific' situations. Highly practical.
If however you actually wish to learn to speak (and even read and write) the Italian language, I'll let you in on a big secret.
Behind the Wheel Italian Revised (the one with the book) is a CD course that will take the best of Italian Phrase Book and take you up a hundred notches to actually speaking the language.
It is so easy to use, has English and Italian on the CDs and in the book, and even includes a tapescript. Fast way to learn Italian. Very user friendly.
Italian Phrase Book and Dictionary is an essential ingredient, very compact, very useful. Just don't stop here if you're serious about learning the language.

I found the book very difficult to use and almost never had what I was looking for. The small dictionary in the back of my eyewitness travel guide was much more useful.

This book will come in very handy for my trip to Italy. The book is easy to follow and use. It's a great guide.

In laundry " It smells like a locker room is not really useful". Under paying for your meal..."What if I wash the dishes"?

The Italians will think you have lost your mind!!!

One does not say "I am full" at the end of an Italian meal.

This book must have been written for a kid on his first back packing trip to Italy.

These stupid remarks take up too much space and much more useful phrases could have been included.

I have used many different language products in the past and I am well-versed enough to make semi-intellligent comments about the books and courses I am using.
Rick Steves' Italian Phrase Book and Dictionary is a great and useful book, but it is even greater and more useful when used in conjunction with Behind the Wheel Italian.
You learn Italian through hearing native speakers speak the language.
Behind the Wheel Italian has the added advantage of an English speaking instructor that explains what you are learning in English and then Ana reinforces the material in her native language.
Rick Steves guide is a gem of phrases, words, pronunciation guide and endless info. When used with a course like Behind the Wheel Italian, you can actually learn to speak the language in a meaningful way.

Being an Italian language teacher (I'm from "Firenze"- Florence, Italy) in Charlotte, NC, I don't think this book is the answer to a traveler's need to know basic Italian.
Don't get me wrong, I love Rick Steves, he's the man! But it doesn't make any sense that you say things in Italian, if you're not going to understand what people say back to you. You're much better off just memorizing this question: "Parla inglese?", which means "Do you speak English?". However, if you're planning on spending time at all in the countryside, you need to know some Italian, because you'll find less people there that speak English.
I HIGHLY recommend the "PIMSLEUR" audio cd (I think they're the best), and if you need a "quick fix" before going on a trip I would purchase the "Italian Quick and Simple" that you can listen to and repeat in your car. It involves A LOT of repetition, and truly, that's what will do the trick so you can remember what to say. Pimsleur is truly the master series for learning languages, they offer a complete Italian Level I course which is excellent for people who are serious about learning. It'll be boring sometimes, because you're repeating so much, but in the end, you'll have a wonderful pronuncia (pronunciation)!
As far as books go, you might have to use a combination, but I do like the Living Language series. Plus, you could purchase Italian Verb Drills, or some other book to practice structure and do more exercises with.
If time permits, definitely join a course in your area - there's no better practice than to practice in a group! Many schools offer short traveler's Italian courses.
Buona fortuna - Good luck!!
If you'd like advice on learning Italian or traveling to Italy, feel free to email me: nada@nadasitaly.com, or go to my website: www.nadasitaly.com, there you will find several links on Italy, as well as suggestions for books to purchase on Amazon.

Very helpful, well-organized. Saw lots of people in Rome using the same book. Full of humor. Unfortunately mine was stolen in Rome before I finished the trip. I really missed it.

The phrases are rarely used except the most common which can be looked up. I constantly find words not listed in the dictionary, especially the things on restaurant menus. Its not completely useless but a bare to carry for its limited use. I would search elsewhere for a more useful book. If there aren't any, I guess this will do.

Admittedly, maneuvering your way through the sections may be a little tricky at first, but we found that most relevant phrases and lingo was repeated in several different sections to reinforce the learning process. We had looked at and even purchased a couple of other phrase books and dictionaries but found this to be the best one overall. Great pronunciation guides, common everyday conversational items and even the humor is a good break in the studies. I already speak decent Italian, my wife did not, and she found Rick's guide to be much better in format and usability and was the one we chose to take to Italy with us.

This book has all the basics including a few that you may need to use but hope you never have to. It is well organized. Better than the Berlitz books I thought. Some things seems goofy- why do I need a translation for I have a social disease? Then I found out - it is perfect for the gross old man trying to grope you on the train in Milan - that's why. Not to make Italy sound bad. They just have their fair share of perverts riding on local trains hitting on young women just like my home city does. Anyway, where I found this book lacking was food. As you travel around Italy, the dialects change fairly dramatically. So, sometimes it can be tricky figuring out what it is that you just ordered until you have it in front of you. In Germany I bought a language guide that was just for food (not by Rick Steves) and that helped. I wish he would write an Italian food translation book. The good thing is that a lot of people in Italy speak some English. If they don't they often understood my mix of Spanish and French vocabulary. I recommend Rick Steve's phrase book because he encourages you to speak to the people in the place that you are visiting - perhaps even thumb wrestle.

Rick Steves is a terrific travel writer, and really knows how to make just about anything entertaining. He does the same with his language books, and this one is no exception. full of useful, though sometimes hilariously irreverant, phrases, this is a great pocket-sized language guide for Italy. you won't find everything you need in here (the Menu guide, for example, is particularly lacking), but it's a very good start and a fun read.

as noted by others, the odd organization of items in the book can make finding things a bit tricky at times, but it's usually in there if you know where to look. just familiarize yourself with where things are located and you'll be fine.
definitely recommended.

This book was a great help during my recent trip to Italy. I liked that Rick Steve's would also add a little bit of the culture and things you should note in here. In the restaurant guide he gives you suggestions, and the fact that your going to pay a bread charge when you sit down at a restaurant. While this book is not complete with all of the words you may need. This coupled with patient folks, you will get what you need.

I think this book is a good starting point, and certainly helped me out as a tourist. I was able to order in a restaurant, get subway directions, receive assistance in a shop without too much trouble. This was one of my best investments on my trip.

Of course, it has the obvious phrases regarding directions, hotel rooms, food, etc. It also has things you really need to say, but that aren't found in standard phrase books. For example, in the "Taxi" section, you can quickly find out how to tell the driver, "If you don't slow down, I will vomit!" There is just enough humor to keep you smiling without wasting your time, and succintly hepful comments throughout. This is the phrase book to get for your next trip to Italy.

I love Rick Steves, but this book is too broken up into categories to use very well. We read all the great reviews on this prior to our trip and bought it - mistake. Any time we wanted to look up a word it wasn't in there (first example coming to mind, BLACK! - it was in the Italian to English, but you'd have to be translating that direction only). It's good for a laugh and has funny translations, like slow down the car or i will vomit, but realistically, will you really use that (OK, in Italy if not elsewhere, but it's not something you'd look up at that moment feeling that way). Impractical is the best description of this book

I used this phrasebook while in Florence in November 2003 and found it very easy to use and helpful. It even made me laugh: what other phrasebook would tell you how to say "I'm a pest" or how to talk with animals? I should add that I studied Italian over 40 years ago, so the language wasn't totally strange to me. The desk clerk at my hotel noticed the phrasebook and commented that it was very good. A street vendor told me I spoke pretty good Italian "for an American."

I purchased Rick Steve's Italian Phrase Book & Dictionary in preparation of my trip to Rome. Rick not only makes Italian easy, he makes it fun. This book spells out hundreds of everyday words and phrases, as well as the common phrases and words that will be used by a tourist. He gives helpful hints on how to speak with the locals and make the most of your experience. He also includes many words/phrases that many people would want to know how to say but would be embarrassed to ask someone to translate for them. His attention to detail is fantastic. Although this book will not teach you fluent Italian, it gives you a great foundational vocabulary to start you on your way. A must for anyone planning to travel to Italy! Buon viaggio!