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.

More spring cleaning! Marika shows us how to dust, and what materials to use. She goes on to wash the windows, and then the dishes.

It can be challenging for non-native Italian speakers to really understand the difference between these three common words: bello (beautiful, nice, pretty), buono (good) and bene (well, fine). In this first part of three, Daniela explains the difference between bello and buono.

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.

If you know the rules regarding masculine and feminine articles, word endings, and plurals in Italian, you'll get it right most of the time. But there are some important exceptions which Daniela addresses in this lesson. They just have to get memorized!

The great Domenico Modugno, best known for his hit song, Nel blu dipinto di blu [Volare], came in first at the San Remo Festival in 1966 with the song, Dio come ti amo. The Italian lyrics are very clear, and very romantic!

Daniela goes into more detail about the difference between bello (beautiful) and buono (good) and clears up any doubts you may have.

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

This lesson is about bene (well, fine). An important difference between bene and bello (beautiful) and buono (good) is that it's an adverb, and therefore doesn't have to agree with nouns. It always stays the same.

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!

When you're getting to know someone, you ask them their name and where they're from. Join Daniela's class as her students ask their first questions in Italian.

Pino Daniele with his unmistakable, magical voice, performs his hit song "Quando" (When) from 1991. It's featured on the album Sott' o sole and was part of the soundtrack of Pensavo fosse amore... invece era un calesse (I thought it was love, but it was a barouche), a 1991 film directed by and starring Massimo Troisi. In this live performance, the audience sings along on the refrain, and so can you!

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.

Daniela takes us through the conjugation of verbs ending in "ere," and explains how easy it can be if we remember some simple rules.