Serena and Elena talk about the school system in Italy, which is quite different from that of other countries. Terminology is different and can be deceptive, so be prepared for some false cognates. Where Americans talk about going away to school (college, university), Italians talk about the university. Find out what "scuola" means to these two young Italian women.

Serena goes in to a shop with a friend to buy some beauty cream. She pays by carta di credito, and makes sure she walks out of the store with lo scontrino (the receipt), which is obligatory in Italy! As an afterthought, she would like Gerarda, the proprietor, to gift-wrap the beauty cream for her, so she asks for un pacchetto regalo.

A cartoon in which two aquarium fish worry about the kids of the house who are going on a school trip.

Serena is still shopping for clothes, and looks at some pretty flashy shoes. In the end, though, she goes for the jacket, and she fishes in her bag for the cash. She gives us a good example of how the plural is used when talking about euros. Euro is both singular and plural in Italian. So whether we're talking about soldi (money) or euro (euros), Italians think in the plural!

Go clothes shopping with Serena, who's looking for something nice for a festa, as well as some everyday wear.

Find out how Adriano spends his day, and how he stays in shape, even though he works in an office.

Serena and Martina take you to a shop that sells both home health care products and beauty aids. This kind of shop is called a sanitaria, coming from the word, sanità (health). If you ever (heaven forbid!) need a wheelchair, ace bandage, neck brace, or even orthopedic shoes, this is the place to go. Today, Serena and Martina are shopping for more glamorous items.

Spring is here and Cettina is enjoying the outdoors. Flowers are starting to bloom, trees are getting leaves, and the sunshine is warm enough to go without a jacket.

Adriano shares with us the story of the fox and the cicada. Apart from the usefulness of the story itself, there's a good selection of verbs in tenses we don't use every day, but which are used in storytelling.

How do three buddies, who happen to be oxen, get eaten by a lion? Adriano tells the tale, complete with the lesson to be learned. Have you guessed? It's one of Aesop's Fables.

Francesca is showing Daniela how to play Briscola. Fulvio joins in to describe the atmosphere of a real game of Briscola between two experts. Who do you think will win? Daniela or Francesca?

While sitting in the park, Francesca teaches Daniela how to play Briscola one of the most famous and popular Italian card games. You can learn, too!

Cettina shows us how to make a very basic nativity scene.

Cettina and Alex show us how they decorate their Christmas tree.

Francesca takes us to Mount Terminillo, a range of mountains whose highest peak is over two thousand two hundred meters high. It's easy to get to from Rome and there's lots to do there.