Sofia is eight years old, and lives in Palermo. She likes going to school, doing her homework, and going out with her mother and friends. She tells us about the last film she’s seen at the cinema. She also recites the alphabet and counts.

Anna and Marika are seated in an historic park, and reflect upon the meaning of life. In the end, they arrive at the conclusion that despite what's bad, life is marvelous and should be lived to its fullest.

Marika and Anna conjugate the verb to be in the simple present, present perfect, and simple past.

Anna and Marika give examples of the past tense of the verb to be.

Marika and Anna go over the future and conditional tenses for the verb essere (to be). The vocabulary review covers the future and the conditional conjugations for this verb.

Anna and Marika take us through the imperative, the subjunctive and the gerund forms of the verb, essere (to be). The subjunctive is used less and less in modern English, so it can be tricky to learn in Italian, but little by little even these forms will become part of your Italian language skills.

Anna and Marika introduce the verb avere (to have) and show us the conjugation in the present, present perfect, simple past and past perfect.

Anna and Marika talk about their love lives, using the remote past and the remote past perfect, as well as the present and past conditional.

Marika and Anna present the verb avere (to have) in the subjunctive mood, which, in Italian, as you'll see, is used when the word che is used as a conjunction. This mood has practically disappeared from the English language.

Anna and Marika finish explaining the tenses of the verb "avere" (to have). They give examples of present and past participles, present and past gerunds, as well as the simple future and future perfect.

We are at the beautiful botanical gardens of Rome. Marika and Anna are sitting on a bench talking. In their conversation they take us through the different conjugations of the verb pensare (to think).

Gestures are part of body language, and we all know that Italians are particularly famous for communicating with their hands. Arianna shows us how to "speak" Italian without words.

Arianna gives us more insights on the gestures used by Italians in everyday life, and talks about what body language can reveal about a person.

Viviana Varese, winner of the 2011 Gambero Rosso Prize "Best emerging young chef", shows us how to make a tartare of Fassone (Piemontese beef) – an elegant and very tasty dish!

Daniela teaches us the Italian way to say hello and goodbye, to both our friends and to people we don't know.