Review: Great, useful beginner's reference book
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 09 20, 2013
This is an excellent, well-written reference for beginning conversational Italian - perfect for use while traveling.  The sections are well-defined between grammar and pronunciation rules, numbers and days, basic phrases for many social situations, and an English-Italian dictionary - very easy to find what you are looking for.  Each word and phrase is set forth in English, Italian, the phonetic pronunciation, and the International Phonetic Alphabet.  I particularly like the fact that I can carry it around on my phone for reference when I need to know a word or phrase immediately.  I was not looking for a college-level language course, which can get to be overwhelming; instead, I wanted an easy, quick reference with general rules that could operate as a basic guide to Italian.  This book provides exactly that!