Others say...

"A great introduction to Italian"
I have this series on audiotape so can't comment on the issues others are bringing up about the 2nd disc in the series, but I did find the series to be well worth the very inexpensive price. I listened a lot while driving and was well prepared for my first and second trips to Italy, at least in being able to get around and ask questions and understand the answers. A lot of Italians assumed by what I said that I was fully conversant and knew more than I actually did!
I liked that there was variety in the way the information was presented - first the conversation in Italian spoken fairly rapidly, followed by the words, translation of the conversation, repeat the dialogue, answer questions based on the lesson, etc. so the information was repeated several times but in different ways so as not to be boring or tedious. I preferred it to Pimsleur, which seemed just to repeat the same words over and over to the point of being annoying and some others which I found not at all helpful. I would definitely recommend this series to someone wanting to get a good start in learning to speak Italian, especially for travelers who do not feel the need to become fully conversational in Italian.

"Learning Italian"
Recently got this to learn some italian. I dont know how much it will help as im only on disc two,but its FULL of info and the book that comes with it is a great guide to learning too. I think this is going to be great(once I learn it) Cd one and two has been wonderful.


"This is the best Italian course I've bought"
I have purchased other teach your self courses in Italian and this is the best one I've heard. It starts out slow and even though some people say it speeds up and gets too fast, it still keeps a slow pace with the Italian. If you think this CD is too fast, try taking a trip to Italy and talking to one of the locals. The English speaking people in this course are very soft spoken with easily tolerable voices and the Italian speakers speak very clearly. I went through the first two CD's in just a couple of days and have been on the third one for about two weeks. I already can put together basic sentences and can interpret most spoken Italian. My biggest suggestion to anyone buying this course is to also get an English/Italian dictionary so you can see how the words are spelt and properly pronounced.

"italian"
First cd is great - but then it starts moving too fast for a beginner.

"Helpful for pronunciation-not for car use"
I have been studying Barron's Italian Verb Book. these CDs were helpful with pronunciation as well as challenging me to come up eith both the meaning and answers to questions in Italian. BUT you need to pause the CD to think about what is being said as well as needing the time to answer in Italian. The pause they have on the CD is OK but only if you have gone through it a couple of times. I so wish they had gone further with the tenses. They stop where I really want to get going. So I listen now more for pronunciation than to learn. I wish they would come out with Cds that cover the rest of the tenses. If someone knows of more advanced CDs please put it in a review.