As you shall see, Italian has a range of salutations at the beginning of formal or business letters, where various adjectives are used in place of "dear." Not only that! They also have curious abbreviations to be familiar with.

Knowing how to write a formal letter is very important, especially if we are looking for a job, making a complaint, or even just trying to get some information. Daniela shows us how.

Marika tells us about parks and what we find there, and also what we can do there.

Adopting an animal is a serious undertaking! Marika is fully aware of that fact and in this final segment, she gets down to the nitty-gritty of keeping cats at home.

Even informal letters have a certain form. The words we choose to open and close the letter set the tone. Daniela gives us some examples of how to open and close a friendly letter.

Marika shows us a series of items that make it easier to have cats in the house. In order to discourage the cats from destroying the furniture, rugs, and curtains, there are some handy remedies.

If you're not sure how to write a letter to your new Italian friend, Daniela is here to help. She tells us the parts of a letter and some options for the greeting and the salutation.

What accessories do we need when we take a kitten into the family? Some are just for kittens themselves, and others are for us humans. Marika makes introductions.

With the term pronto soccorso, what's usually meant is the emergency room of a hospital. Marika takes us through who to call if you have an accident, and how an emergency room works in Italy.

Just as infatti (in fact) has become one word made up of in and fatti, so also has affatti (totally) succumbed to the same fate. But here, there's a catch. It can have two opposing meanings, so you have to be careful. Daniela explains.

Adopting a dog means going through several steps. Marika describes what she and her family went through in attempting to realize their dream of having a puppy.

This wonderful word may be one of the first ones you learn while traveling in Italy. It's incredibly useful as a one-word answer and in many cases, very easy to use. Daniela explains everything we need to know. See also this lesson in English about magari.

Ormai (already, by now, at this point, by this time) is a wonderful word Italians use all the time. However, its definition isn't always easy to pin down. Daniela tells us about three nuances of the word and gives us a host of examples.

Marika shares some of her childhood with us, specifically, her experience of having a puppy grow up beside her as part of the family. Now she has children of her own, and wants to give them that same special experience.

Get to know some of Italy's favorite sports. You probably already know the absolute favorite...