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When you’re approaching a foreign language for the first time, surrounding yourself with the best available resources is essential for those precious breakthroughs that will keep you going all the way to fluency.
Italian’s no exception, especially if you’ve never studied another Romance language (e.g. French, Spanish, and Portuguese) before. With that in mind, I’ve put down a list of the best Italian textbooks you can order on the web.
Each of these titles will make a perfect match with one (or several) of the Italian grammar books I’ve talked about in another article.
Best Italian textbooks for beginners
1. Italian: A Self-Teaching Guide
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This is one textbook that really lives up to its title. In fifteen simple lessons, you’ll develop the basic skills you’ll need to read, write, understand, and… of course, speak Italian.
Usage and pronunciation, which can be particularly tricky for English-speaking students, are highlighted across the book.
Better yet, the mini-dialogues and culture notes that dot Italian: A Self-Teaching Guide will keep you pumped as they introduce you to the most delightful aspects of Italian culture.
Why you’ll enjoy this book:
- Its focus is on how Italian is spoken by natives;
- It’s been designed specifically for folks studying at their own pace;
- You’ll find multiple notes on culture and vocab throughout.
2. ITALIAN in 10 minutes a day
This is the book for our day and age with its content-packed, ten-minute lessons. It’s aimed at folks who need to travel to Italy soon, yet any learner who enjoys working at their own pace will love this book too.
Its unusual design, which gives the impression you’re reading through a children’s book, is meant to make you forget you’re actually studying. The point here is to have fun as you learn!
But don’t let that or the tons of engaging activities you’ll find throughout the book (including word games and puzzles) fool you. The content covered by ITALIAN in 10 minutes a day is worth a quarter of studies in college (or a year in high school).
Why you’ll enjoy this book:
- The ten-minute-a-day method is among the most efficient out there;
- It’s just awesome if you don’t have a lot of time to study Italian;
- It targets foreigners who are planning to travel to Italy soon.
3. Italian Language and Culture: Beginner
With Italian Language and Culture, you won’t get a mere textbook, but an entire online course the book was designed to match. That said, you can go through all the grammar explanations, charts, and examples without necessarily following the course.
The course boasts videos (with optional English subtitles), reading materials translated into English, and interviews with famous Italians.
One thing that does stand out and has nothing to this book’s outstanding qualities is that all proceeds from its sale go to the McLean Hospital in Massachusetts.
Why you’ll enjoy this book:
- You’ll be presented with multimedia content to learn on many fronts;
- It accompanies an entirely free online course;
- It’s followed by an intermediate and an advanced edition.
4. Italian Now! Level 1: L’italiano d’oggi!
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The diversity of exercises in this book is truly its main asset. You’ll get matching columns, word puzzles, fill-in activities, and more.
Like any great Italian textbook for beginners worth the name, it features a bilingual dictionary and a list of the most common irregular verbs.
With its sleek line illustrations, Italian Now! is a feast for the eyes too. You’ll learn the basics about Italian sentence structure, widespread expressions, and how to conjugate verbs with this excellent title.
Why you’ll enjoy this book:
- It has a more casual approach aimed at developing your conversation skills;
- Exercises are extremely interactive;
- It’s complete with a list of irregular verbs and a bilingual dictionary.
5. Living Italian: A Grammar-Based Course
Badmouth tradition as much as you want, but there’s a reason some things stay the same for so long: they work.
This book is best suited for those of you looking for a more conventional approach to studying Italian, whether because that’s proven effective in your case or because you feel iffy about bolder methods.
What do I mean by conventional, by the way? Well, you’ll get plenty of grammar around here. To me, that’s simply wonderful, though.
To be clear, there’s no lack of interactive resources within Living Italian. You’ll get vocab lists, reading materials, and speaking inputs, as well as a 32-page test section.
Why you’ll enjoy this book:
- Grammar explanations are top-notch;
- It includes 30+ pages of quizzes;
- Every lesson departs from a dialogue, story, or letter and is filled with examples.
6. Practice Makes Perfect: Complete Italian All-in-One
Having to buy a textbook, a workbook, and a grammar guide from different publishers is hard on your pocket and typically hurts your learning process too. You’ll never worry about that if you get this comprehensive book, which introduces you to Italian throughout 672 pages spread across three books.
Here, you’ll get 400+ exercises, flashcards, dialogue recordings, a progress-tracking tool, and extremely thorough explanations.
Why you’ll enjoy this book:
- There’s an astonishing 672 pages’ worth of content;
- Grammar topics and exercises are perfectly balanced;
- It’s divided into five core sections to make your studies easier.
Best Italian textbooks for intermediate learners
7. Contatti 2 Italian Intermediate Course
After learning how to survive in Italy (communication-wise!) with the first volume of this series, it’s time to take it to the next level and manage to have a deeper conversation with a local. That’s where this book will help you out.
Contatti is awesome for both group classes and those of you in search of a tool to teach yourself Italian. One of the coolest things about it is that it’s supported by a wide range of free online materials aimed at developing your listening and speaking skills.
Why you’ll enjoy this book:
- It’s equipped with amazing audio material;
- You’ll get to hone your communication skills after mastering the basics;
- It’s part of a series that you can use from the beginner level.
8. Enjoy Intermediate Italian
We both know textbook dialogues are essential for learning a new language, but they can get boring if that’s the only thing you read in Italian. Enjoy Intermediate Italian is serious about that and alternates them with fantastic source materials (e.g. poems and lyrics).
While the content is sequenced and well-thought-out, the book uses the Discovery method, which has learners find their own solutions to a problem in an unstructured setting. That’s perfect to make you start thinking in Italian instead of parroting words and phrases.
The book is complete with a workbook and a two-hour audio course that will ensure all aspects of language learning are fully covered.
Why you’ll enjoy this book:
- There’s a workbook and two hours’ worth of audio content in the package;
- It’ll lead you all the way to the B2 level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages;
- It features poems and songs besides regular dialogues.
9. New Italian Espresso Intermediate/advanced
This intermediate Italian textbook is among the best on the market because it pampers English-speaking students with lessons that focus on their specific needs.
Each lesson is written in English, and so is the grammar appendix at the end of the book. That means you’ll easily understand every explanation and finally move on to our next section!
New Italian Espresso is accompanied by a video course and audio dialogues and was created by Alma Edizioni, one of the most renowned publishers in the field.
Why you’ll enjoy this book:
- It targets the needs of English-speaking learners specifically;
- It’s meant to be paired with audio tracks and a video course;
- You can also purchase the workbook and the beginner/pre-intermediate chapter for a smoother learning journey.
Best Italian textbooks for advanced learners
10. Ecco!: An Introduction to Advanced Italian
Two things turn this book into a great addition to our list. Its lessons concentrate on vocabulary building — 6k words and 1k phrases to be more accurate —, plus it’s been designed specifically for English speakers (by being particularly thorough on the gender of nouns, for example).
Its grammar appendix is hard to beat as well and is especially useful for self-teaching students. Even though you may need some other material to practice your listening and speaking skills, Ecco! will certainly give you a solid understanding of Italian grammar and usage.
Why you’ll enjoy this book:
- You’ll be introduced to 6,000+ new Italian words and 1,000+ idioms;
- Grammar lessons focus on topics English speakers typically have a harder time with;
- When it comes to conversation skills, it always highlights how native speakers talk in real life.
11. Interpretazioni: Italian Language and Culture through Film
If I could turn back time and learn Italian all over again, this would definitely be my book of choice. I’m a movie buff (I’ll give you that), but I also know cultural immersion is one of the most efficient ways of learning a foreign language.
And since we’re talking about studying the way Italian is actually spoken by natives today, the book focuses on movies from the last five to twelve years. What’s more, the settings and genres included here are as diverse as it gets.
With Intepretazioni, you’ll have the chance to develop your reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills while diving into the fascinating world of Italian culture. Activities are meant for before, during, and after each flick.
Why you’ll enjoy this book:
- You’ll have fun as you learn from contemporary Italian movies;
- It’ll give you a closer look at Italian culture too;
- Yet it doesn’t overlook grammar lessons.
12. Advanced Italian Step-by-Step
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I love how this Italian language textbook approaches language learning as a piecemeal process that can be compared to building a house. They’ll make sure your foundation is steady by reviewing all the basics before introducing you to more complex stuff.
While it’ll teach you hundreds of new words, Advanced Italian Step-by-Step will never do that carelessly; vocab is always presented within dialogues that you might as well have in real life.
Despite being advanced in terms of content, all explanations in this book are in English. Every lesson is topped off with a bunch of exercises so you’ll fully memorize what you’ve just seen.
Why you’ll enjoy this book:
- It’s based on a “block-building” method of teaching grammar;
- You’ll get 200+ exercises spread across 400+ pages;
- The author is a professor of Italian who’s written other great books.
Conclusion
Although they are key to your learning path, Italian textbooks shouldn’t be treated as a standalone tool as you study the language.
Instead, you’ll get the coveted fluency badge way faster if you also count on resources like Italian learning apps.
Plus, there are other kinds of books to learn Italian such as grammar books and Italian workbooks that you’ll benefit enormously from if you pair them with your favorite textbook. You can even dive into Italian novels and storybooks.
All in all, anyone can become fluent in any language through effective Italian learning habits, hard work and the tools that suit their learning needs best.