Rick Steves' Italian Phrase Book & Dictionary

This was very useful on our recent trip to Italy. We had both the Lonely Planet phrase book and this one with us, but this is the one we ended up using. We found it easier to navigate and more comprehensive than the other. It had more information and was organized more clearly than Lonely Planet. In particular, I thought the Rick Steve's pronunciation guide was easier to follow and got me closer to the correct pronunciation than the Lonely Planet book. However, what really tipped it over the edge was its section on health and medical care. My husband and I -- who travel frequently and rarely get sick -- contracted some kind of horrible flu/sinus infection/plague on the way out or Rome and needed to seek urgent medical consultation and care from a pharmacy on the Amalfi coast. The Rick Steves guide came to our rescue because it had more than three times the amount of health and medical vocabulary than the Lonely Planet book, which we desperately needed because we had a lot of specific symptoms to communicate and the pharmacist/doctor only spoke a few words of English. Thanks to Rick Steves, we were able to explain what was going on and get the right medical information (and medicine) to help us recover quickly. I don't know what we would have done if we had only had the Lonely Planet phrasebook to go on. We might have been given cough drops instead of antibiotics. If you are on the fence, this is the way to go.

This made our trip way better. So many tourists everywhere, this helped personalize our trip. This is for the smart traveler and helps them take it all in. If you buy this you must read it and not just skim it. I was shocked how hooked up we got using this book. This is not for everyone, if you don't want to read or care about where you are and just want to zone out and have someone do everything for you, not for you. If you want to dig into this resource and explore where you are and the people and culture, take time to carry it with you and read while your walking around. Yes, this book was in our pack, pulled it out everywhere, from North to south. I can't even imagine not having this as a resource. I would have paid way more for this load of compiled info on all our stops and things to check out. Plus Rick is the best! He makes it easy for the fish out of water to find its way. Massive thanks for this fantastic resource. Also, download his audio tours, as all the cruise line tourist sprint through all the museum with their selfie stick raised high, you can sit tight and listen to all the awesome info and insight to what makes these places amazing. Thanks Rick

This is a nice way to start to learn "By the Phrase" Italian. Having just been to Italy, I can vouch for the generally friendly and helpful nature of most of the residents. Also, in most of the more popular tourist destinations, English is often spoken. So, if you were to work with this book and learn some of the useful, ordinary phrases, it would probably make a nice impression on the native Italians and would make you feel less like a clueless tourist. This book will not make you really fluent, nor will it teach you the real mechanics of the language. Keep in mind this a phrase based, quick start approach that is easy to read and should help the average tourist.

Just got back from our trip. This was super helpful and goes beyond what a phrasebook should do. There are small relevant tips on transportation, lodging, ordering food etc. For example, he breaks down how what the different restaurants tend to serve (bistro, wine bar, restaurant, sandwich shop etc) and how to tell which ones are more touristy and less authentic, as well as how much food to order, what should be shared, and what the customs are as far as ordering, eating, and tipping. Some might think that they can get by with a smartphone translator app but unless you are a seasoned traveler, especially one with considerable experience traveling in Italy, then the term "you don't know what you don't know" rings true. This book is helpful to me because it told me how to say things and ask for things that I wouldn't have thought of on my own. Final pro tip: get his Europe travel app. It is free. There are walking tours and maps included for some of the more popular attractions. Make sure you download them so that you can have access to the audio offline.

This was a really fun book to use. There are a lot of very specific phrases to get you through specific situations as well as a dictionary to create your own phrases. Unfortunately, most of the Italians spoke English where I went (Positano and Pompeii) so I only had to use basic Italian greetings, but it was still nice to learn. Its a very small book, full of lots of information, so if you're going to a more remote area or you just want to speak Italian to the locals, it's easy to carry around. I spent more time reading and studying it ahead of time, but it I had needed to, it would slip easily into a purse or backpack.

If your goal is to just learn "survival Italian" for a vacation, you should get this book instead of or in addition to a more comprehensive and academically focused reference. With this alone, you will be better than 95% of tourists in terms of language proficiency. More importantly, this book focuses on only the common situations for travelers. So you will learn most of what you are likely to need. The organization is great, and it is easy to find the correct sections if you need to look something up. I'd recommend this to anyone vacationing in Italy, who would like to know some of the language for necessities, or to just enhance their experience and level of interaction with Italian people.

I really loved his conversations in real life situations plus the Italian/English & English/Italian Dictionaries . But most of all, I loved his sense of humour !

Just what I was looking for to help utter a few key phrases during an upcoming trip to Italy. Small enough for a pocket while touring around. Well set up in section with easy phonetics below words.

Brilliant book, very useful indeed. A must if your planning a trip to Rome.

Excellent book to use while on holiday.

It was great! Hefty reading at 1000+ pages but very valuable information. I also bought his Italian/English mini dictionary to go with it. Also a worthwhile purchase.