Nineteen-year-old Martina tells us about herself. Her dreams have changed over the years, and she now has some concrete, long-term, and clearcut goals.

Daniela, in the first part of a two-part series, shows us how to express need in a personal way with the noun bisogno [need].

The contestants face another round robin of questions, this time regarding four specific years. It's a great chance to practice those long, one-word numbers Italians use.

A young university student tells us about her interests as a kid, how her ideas changed as she grew up, and what her dream is.

Marika completes the recipe for "pasta alla Norma," and serves it up. It's evident that Anna thinks it's real good, too. In fact, she describes it as troppo buono (too good), a typical colloquial way to say "very, very good."

It may come as a relief to see that Italian adverbs of manner are similar to English ones. But when Marika starts giving us some [very useful] idiomatic adverbial phrases using adjectives, it's slightly more complicated.

Adriano and his mother show us how to make this Sicilian summer specialty. It's easy to make, but there is one important secret.

Daniela wraps up the lessons on the subjunctive with some sentences that begin with che (that), calling for the subjunctive. She also discusses some cases in which we can either use the subjunctive mood or the future tense.

Anna gets grilled on Sicily by Marika. Oral quizzes are very frequently used in Italian schools. Grading is done on a scale from 1-10 for primary and secondary schools, and from 1-30 at the university level.

Daniela covers comparative sentences that require the use of the subjunctive.

Noemi Bossolo is an aspiring singer from Marsala, Sicily. She sings some lines from her favorite songs, and is joined by her parents, who speak about her training.

Daniela goes over words or expressions that trigger the use of the subjunctive, including affinché (so that), a meno che (unless), and senza che (without).

There are some special conjunctions that take the subjunctive and then che (that). There are several of them but they're quite similar to one another. Little by little, as you hear them used, they'll become part of your vocabulary.

What's Adriano's favorite dish? Discover this very simple but delicious Italian pasta recipe.

The previous lesson ended with the verb essere (to be) plus adjectives. Now, Daniela goes on to tell us about the verb essere plus adverbs and then teaches us about a great shortcut for avoiding the subjunctive when using the word basta [it's enough, just]. Normally, basta signals the need for the subjunctive, but Daniela offers up some examples where the infinitive verb works best.