"The Frog Prince" is a famous fairy tale—nothing new! But what an opportunity to learn and practice the passato remoto! In everyday conversations this tense is rare in much of Italy, but when we're talking about "once upon a time..." it's a mainstay.

This time Marika talks about Libra, Scorpio, and Sagittarius. There's lots of good vocabulary having to do with personality!

Marika explains the next three signs of the zodiac, Cancer, Leo, and Virgo. Learn plenty of adjectives that describe people's personalities.

Whether or not you take stock in astrology, Marika gives you plenty of new vocabulary for talking about personality, while describing the characteristics attributed to the first three signs of the zodiac: Aries, Taurus and Gemini.

Adriano introduces us to his best friend, Oscar.

The traditional Anglo-Saxon holiday, Halloween, has gradually taken hold in Italy and is now an occasion for partying, wearing costumes, and having fun. Serena opens up the door to her apartment and...

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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