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.

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.

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!

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.

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

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

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

It's time for spring cleaning. Marika shows us how, and more importantly, she gives us the names of the tools we'll need.

Daniela explains how easy it is to form the plurals of feminine nouns, even if you don't know their meaning.