Showing posts with label Italian for Tourists. Show all posts

Italian Words Every Tourist Should Learn Before Visiting Rome

If you’re planning a trip to Italy — especially to a city as vibrant and bustling as Rome — learning a few Italian words before you go can make a world of difference. Even just a handful of phrases can open doors, spark smiles, and help you feel more at home as you explore.

I’ve lived in Rome for over 24 years, and I can tell you from experience: Italians really appreciate it when visitors make the effort to speak a little Italian. It shows respect, curiosity, and a genuine interest in their culture — plus, it’s often the key to getting better service, friendlier chats, and maybe even insider tips you won’t find in guidebooks.

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If you’re feeling a bit daunted about where to start, don’t worry — that’s exactly why I wrote Italian for Tourists. It’s a practical, easy-to-use book designed especially for travellers who want to get by confidently without spending months learning grammar or vocabulary.

Italian for Tourists by Jo Linsdell (kindle edition)

But before you get your hands on a copy, here are some essential Italian words and phrases that every tourist should know:

1. Greetings and Politeness

Ciao (hello/goodbye) – informal and very common
Buongiorno (good morning) and Buonasera (good evening) – polite greetings for different times of day
Per favore (please) and Grazie (thank you) – small words with a big impact!
Mi scusi (excuse me) – handy for getting someone’s attention or apologising

Using these words goes a long way, especially when entering shops, cafés, or asking for directions.

2. Getting Around

Dove è...? (Where is...?) – essential for asking directions
Biglietto (ticket) – for buses, trains, or museums
Fermata (stop/station) – useful for public transport
Destra (right), sinistra (left), and dritto (straight ahead) – directions made easy

Whether you’re hopping on a tram or wandering narrow streets, these words will help you navigate with confidence.

3. Dining Out

Il menù, per favore (the menu, please)
Acqua (water), vino (wine), and caffè (coffee) — must-knows for any meal!
Il conto, per favore (the bill, please) — don’t get stuck guessing how to ask for it!
Senza glutine (gluten-free) or vegetariano (vegetarian) – helpful if you have dietary preferences

Knowing these can make ordering in a trattoria or café less intimidating and far more enjoyable.

4. Numbers and Money

Numbers from uno to dieci (one to ten) will help when shopping or paying
Quanto costa? (How much does it cost?)
Posso pagare con la carta? (Can I pay by card?)

A few numbers can save you from awkward moments and make buying souvenirs or tickets smoother.

Why Learning These Words Matters

Even if you don’t become fluent (and honestly, very few tourists do!), mastering basic Italian words can enrich your travel experience immeasurably. It opens doors, breaks down barriers, and helps you connect with locals in a way that’s impossible when you rely only on English.

If you’d like a handy guide tailored specifically for travellers — one that keeps things simple, practical, and enjoyable — I’d love for you to check out my book, Italian for Tourists. It’s packed with essential vocabulary, pronunciation tips, and handy phrases for all kinds of situations.

Final Tips

Practice a little each day before your trip — even 10 minutes makes a difference!
Don’t worry about mistakes; Italians love when you try.
Carry Italian for Tourist Pocket Edition for quick reference on the go.

And if you want to start with the best resource, Italian for Tourists is ready to guide you every step of the way.

If you’re planning a trip to Rome, you can also explore my Rome travel tips and guides for practical advice, itineraries, and local insights.

Italian for Tourists by Jo Linsdell (pocket edition)

Ready to speak Italian on your next trip?

Learning just a few words will make your time in Italy more fun, more memorable, and a little less daunting. And when you’re ready to take the next step, Italian for Tourists is here to help you feel confident, prepared, and excited for your Italian adventure.

Buon viaggio!

Are you planning a trip to Rome or Italy soon? Try using a few of these Italian words on your travels and see how locals respond — you might be surprised.

Let me know in the comments which Italian word or phrase you’re most excited to use!

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Whether you are planning your next travel adventure, looking for wellness and beauty tips, or upgrading your home and garden, I have got you covered. Click a button below to explore!

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Firstly, sorry for disappearing without saying anything. I hadn't planned to have a break like this but it happened and I went with it. Sometimes we all just need a break right?

Anyway, I thought I'd bring you all up to speed with what I've been doing in my time off.

Calabria

I went of holiday with my family to Calabria. This awesome place in the South of Italy is fast becoming one of my favourite places on the planet. We went there for a wedding last year but only got a short amount of time to explore. Having loved what we did see we jumped at the chance to go back again this year when a friend of ours asked us to visit him.

We spent most of our time on the beach at Pizzo swimming with the fish and getting tanned. We did take a trip to Tropea too as it gets so much hype about how amazing it is. It is beautiful. It's also full of tourists... packed full of them. We decided that although the scenery was breathtaking but it just too busy, with not much space to actually relax. Still glad we went to see it. Another place ticked off my bucket list ;)

The place we stayed at was in Monterosso Calabro which is a small hillside village. Half the buildings are empty so it was very peaceful. And again, the views were amazing. We will definitely be going back in the future.

Pompeii

On the way back to Rome we stopped off in Pompeii (another place on my bucket list) and visited the ruins. WOW! just WOW!

Pompeii is well worth a visit and I wish we'd had more time to explore it more. It's like stepping back in time. The whole city is so well preserved. It was a amazing to be able to walk down those streets and step inside the buildings.

Seeing the casts of the bodies in their final moments was hard, especially those of the young children. It was unnerving knowing that the vulcano is, in fact, still active (and going by recent calculation due another eruption in the not too distant future).

We only managed to see about a third of the ruins as we only had a short amount of time. I'd love to go back and see the rest of it one day.

Latina

Back home to Rome for a day to unpack, and finish decorating our kids bedroom, then we were back in the car and headed to Latina. A closer location this time. We went to a place called Miami Beach which is a water park full of all sorts of water attractions.

Acqua gym, group dancing, a foam party, an obstacle course, Jacuzzi, big water tube rides... it was a busy, but very fun day out. We even watched a magic show, and fed the fish and turtles at the lake. Loads of fun for kids big and small.

If you're planning a holiday in Italy you might want to check out my book Italian for Tourists ;)

Then what?

After all of that it was back home again and time to try and get back to normal (whatever that is).

Oh and I cut my hair... drastically. Yep from super long to pixie. It was time for a change and, to be honest, long hair was just too much work to keep it looking good.

In all of this I forgot to give you the last update for BookTubeAThon and so I filmed a quick vlog to sum it all up:

Back to work

It's hard to get back into the flow when you've taken time off.. especially when you discover your inboxes are exploding. Seriously, SO - MANY - EMAILS! It's taken me all week to get through them and I'm still playing catch up.

During my time off, and now I'm back, I've been giving some serious thought to my work load. I love what I do and it's hard to think about cutting something(s) from my list. I do know that I won't be able to grow more though if I don't make some changes.

My kids go back to school mid-September (yep that late AND summer break started on 8th June. The struggle is real). The fact that they will be going back to school had me thinking "finally I'll have some time to actually get some work done". In truth, I won't actually have that much time.

The kids going back to school does mean I will have some more time without the kids, but when I got to thinking about it I realised that doesn't necessarily mean I'll have more time to do work.

Back to school means school runs. This in itself will take more time this year as my boys will be at different schools. Two different schools, opposite directions from our house, different start and end times. I'm going to be running from one place to another most of the day.

Back to school also means parent/teacher meetings, school admin stuff, and all the birthday parties and other social meet ups.

September also means back to training. My boys practice competitive Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and swimming. The next Italian Championships for Brazilian Jiu Jitsu are at the end of October and so my youngest will be back training hard in preparation. So far he has won 5 Gold medals and is aiming for another for his collection.

Swimming training starts up again too, and with it lots of competitions. They both do individual, relay, and lifeguard. My eldest is hoping to qualify for regional and national competitions this year and so will be increasing his training over the coming months.

More training for them means more things on my own to do list too. For one I have to take them to and from their training sessions, and competitions.

So will I really have much more time to devote to working? Not really. This means I need a new plan of action. I don't need to work harder. I need to work smarter.

I'm still trying to work out all the details of my new plan but I do know I need to make some changes to what I do and how I do it.

Let's work together

One thing I want to do more of is collaborations, both for my youtube channel, and here on the blog... maybe for social media too. Group projects are fun to do, and get great results. If you have any ideas for a collaboration we could do together get in touch.

Working smarter

I'm currently researching apps that I can use for my blogs and social media. Like I said, I want to work smarter, not harder. If you know of a great app that gets results, is super easy to use, and saves you time with your various blog related tasks please tell me all about it. Bonus points if it's free ;)

One of my favourite apps is SUMO. I've been using it for a couple of years now and love it. It makes it super easy to share images along with links to my content. Just so you know, I was using it way before I became an affiliate for the program and would still be telling you about it even without the chance to earn a little something from my link.

Anyway, I'll fill you in more soon, once I have a clear idea of the what and how to of my new plan. I'll also try to get back into my normal posting schedule here on the blog.

Taking some time off has been great. Sometimes we need to step away for a moment to better understand what we're doing, and want to be doing.

Did you take some time off this summer?

This week's review showcase is for Italian for Tourists. Here's a few of the comments it's received:

"I am an Italian Instructor for the Palm Beach County School Board, Florida. I teach Italian (for Travelers, Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced) adult education classes in Palm Beach Gardens Community High School and privately. In addition, I am the organizer of two Italian social, language travel and cultural clubs LEONARDO's ITALIAN LINK, LEONARDO'S ITALIAN CLUB, in addition to LEONARDO'S ITALIAN BOOK CLUB, in South Florida; I faithfully dedicate this time to the community that shares my passion for Italy and all things Italian. As an entrepreneur,I represent an Italian multinational company. After reviewing many language and travel books, I have chosen Jo Linsdell's "Italian for Travelers" paperback as the official Italian language book that will be used by all students that will attend Palm Beach Gardens Community High School adult classes " Italian for Travelers". As per my recommendation, aforementioned, is now the official book for said classes, which will be purchased by my private students, my Italian book club social/travel/club members, and the PBGCHS. Congratulations to Jo Linsdell for a fine job!"By lori.samarin

"This is the best introductory travel book to start with for your trip to Italy. It is bare bones. I am so glad I ordered this. Simplistic is the best description for this book. It is for those, like me, who are traveling to Italy for the first time and know no Italian." By "CandiJ"

"I don’t speak Italian. I have enough trouble with English (or is it American). Jo Linsdell has written the definitive guidebook. I know if I ever make it to Italy, this is the book I want. Why? Because it’s layout is simple, easy to use and covers everything. Ms Linsdell has put in a guide to how to pronounce the letters and put in the most common of phrases. There is not a lot of excess wording so finding what phrase or word you need in a hurry is very simple. This book is a must for anyone traveling to Italy. The only negative is that it doesn’t go into all the bad language that Italian drivers throw at each other. Wait, that’s a good thing. The first thing you notice is how the book is divided. Then you get the guide to how to pronounce each letter and in Italian, you do just that. After that, all you have to do is look for the section you need, airport, train station, hotel, etc, and all the common phrases are there. Anyone who travels can use this book. There are many Italian to English books or other combinations, but none are as easy to use as Italian for Tourists. I highly recommend this to anyone traveling to Italy" -By Ron Berry

"If you are travelling to Italy, this is a must have book".- By Karen Cioffi

"I never knew that learning another language could be so simple, so helpful and so much fun. If ever you are going to visit Italy, this is the only book you will need!"- By Jamieson Wolf

"Ms. Linsdell divides the book in easy-to- navigate sections to make finding what you need quick. I believe this will be a highly recommended source by many travel agencies in the near future"- By Joyce Anthony

Grab your print copy here.

N.B. I'm currently in the process of reformatting the kindle version. If you've already got a copy, you will be able to update it free of charge via your e-library on Amazon once the new version has been uploaded.

The new, updated, version is scheduled for release this month.