Pimsleur Italian Basic Course – Level 1 Lessons 1-10 CD by Pimsleur Language Programs

First of all, even though this shows the picture of the original style package, what I got was the newer version with the simple blue and white graphics on the cover. That means you DON’T get the nice cloth-covered zipper case for the CDs that you get with the older version. The upside of that, I suppose, is that the cardboard folder the disks came with in this version takes up less space.
If you’ve done Pimsleur before for other languages, you will know what to expect. The dialog was almost the same in the French and Dutch courses, mostly word for word, except where the language necessitates something a bit different. It may help to have a sense of humor as well, as because the conversations are often not anything that anyone would actually have in real life. In both the French and Italian versions, the second half of lesson nine consists of an apparently increadibly dense guy repeatedly asking a married woman to go out with him, first for a drink, then for a meal, when she has been making it very clear she is not interested! The Dutch version isn’t much different either.
As someone else said, the lessons are extremely repetitive, but that is intentional. That can be a bit annoying if you already have some familiarity with the language and got the disks to refresh your memory, say. But, if that is your intention you can play the disks in the background while you are doing something else. In the case of Dutch, with which I had no prior familiarity, I found the repetition at times helpful, although, even then, a bit much. (… and even with the repetition, I still tended to get it mixed up with German.
One thing I would NOT do is rely on Pimsleur as the sole means of learning any language. You will get no sense whatsoever as to how the language is written and because it is so repeatitive, you don’t get a lot of vocabulary either. The disks can be quite helpful with pronounciation, although I get the sense that in all languages they tend to try to give you a “man on the street” type of pronounciation, with things slurred together a bit more than a refined speaker might pronounce them. (Not being a native speaker of any of these languages, I can’t say for sure.)
I bought the Italian set because I found the Dutch one helpful with pronounciation and basic vocabulary. If you already know quite a bit of the language, as was the case with French for me, the program will be way too basic for anything except refreshing pronounciation, and, as mentioned, you need to play it in the background in that case, or the repetition will drive you batty. I haven’t even considered getting the German one because my shortcomings there are with grammar, not pronounciation or vocabulary.
BOTTOM LINE – useful/helpful, but I would also get a textbook of some sort and probably a book of conjugated verbs.

My wife works for an Italian food company and is literally the only person who does NOT speak Italian. GReat gift for her to listen while she’s driving all day. It starts off easy and kind of goes a bit FAST but I guess if you listen to it a million times you’ll get used to it

This is an excellent course that teaches you to learn Italian or any other language very easily. Great audio course.

Only on the first disc. The introduction is tedious. The first 2 lessons focus on correct pronunciation and using words in a sentence. Highly recommend!

Last year I bought the Pimsleur Brazilian Portuguese Course and it was a life saver when we travelled to Brazil! Locals even commented that I have a perfect accent! So the Pimsleur Italian was a no brainer! I’m loving it so far! It’s the best way to learn!

I like Pimsleur’s method of learning as I drive a lot on highways and can learn in the car. You learn like you did as child, buy listening and repeating. Lots of opportunity to repeat back. No reading or writing, just learning to speak and understand.