Travelling to Italy without knowing Italian

Many people visit Italy every year and I assume that not even half of them know Italian, except for those few words that everybody around the world knows. If you are not interested in learning Italian at all, then feel free to speak English, but if you want to learn Italian to fully enjoy your first stay in Italy, read on to find out about my five tips on how to do it successfully.


  1. Plan ahead. After you book your trip to Italy, take some time before your trip to sit down and focus on learning Italian, do not expect to reach an A1 level in one week, that is pretty much impossible let me tell you. A1 level means you are able to express your primary needs and communicate with others with very simple expressions. I think this should be your goal: easily communicate with native speakers. Overdoing it would be a mistake, even if you have a month to prepare, you want to do everything sequentially: it is useless to learn about subjunctive and then not being able to order coffee at a bar.


  1. Take your time. Let’s say you have a month, take things easy and learn something everyday. Again, overdoing it would be a mistake here, too, because your brain doesn’t absorb much information at the same time, especially when you are learning grammar. One topic at a time.
  2. Don’t stress it. Remember, you are doing it because you want enjoy your stay at the maximum, so it should be something fun. Try out creative learning techniques such as listening to Italian music. If you can’t seem to get your head over a specific topic, pass on to the next one, you’ll get back there another time.


  1. Keep track of what you learn. Know what your learning schedule is so that you can brush on it right before leaving or even when you are already in Italy.
  1. Enjoy the moment. Once you are finally in Italy, enjoy the moments when you interact with native speakers in Italian, all you hard work will be put to extremely good use!


I have shared my top 5 tips for a learning a language before and I thought I would share these five new tips for future travellers. This is exactly what I would do if I were to travel to a place without knowing the local language. Learning together with your travel buddy would make things easier and even more enjoyable and you would have someone to rely upon. Even knowing a few words or sentences might really help you abroad, native speakers will consider it as a sign that you want to know more of their country and culture and integrate as much as it is possible to do so during a holiday. Hopefully this information is useful to many of you reading this post.


  1. Lucrezia, How are Italians when it comes to apeople making mistakes? I was talking with a native speaker on skype, and I told him”Teamo RJ,” He thought I was crazy! I was trying to say, my name is RJ.”

    The poor guy thought I was telling him I loved him!

    I told him what I was trying to say, and then the dood said, “I think you’re talking spanish”

    What do you think? RJ!

  2. Ho trovato il modo molto piacevole di imparare l’italiano, sono le Lei lezioni 🙂
    Non ho molta pratica di parlare, ma la mia capacità di lettura e di udienza è migliorata molto.
    Io e la mia famiglia andiamo a Italia alla fine di agosto.
    Continuerò a guardare il Lei canale anche dopo il nostro viaggio.
    Grazie mille, Lucrezia!!

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