If you’re approaching Italian for the first time, this book is exactly what you need. It contains more than 55 dialogues and short stories with detailed explanations of key words and expressions, grammar rules with lots of examples and more than 260 exercises with solutions to practice what you’re learning. You’ll also be able to use a self-evaluation system so that you’ll know at the end of each lesson, if you need to go back and review it or if you’re ready to move on to the next step. Half way through this course and then again at the end of it, a test will allow you to check your level and make sure that you’ve achieved the results you were aiming for. The best way to learn a foreign language though is to be exposed to it as much as you can and it is very important to listen to mother-tongue people speak. For this reason, all the dialogues and the vocabulary lists that you’ll find in this book are available online for free. Listening (and repeating) over and over again is the easiest way to expand your vocabulary and learn the correct pronunciation of Italian words. You will practically “absorb” the language, just like a sponge, and you’ll be able to use words and expressions in the moment you’ll need them. So this book can be a useful reference guide that you can always carry with you and the online audio and video material will give you the possibility to be immersed in the language whenever you want.