Italian · Italiano

Guided 95 resource listings .

Italian has full A1–C2 paths and on-site tools on this site — start with the level that matches your speaking, not your reading vanity. Last reviewed 2026-08-01

About Italian

Language family
Indo-European, Italic, Romance
Where it's spoken
Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City
Speakers
roughly 65 million native speakers
Writing
Latin

Italian evolved from the Tuscan dialect of Vulgar Latin and was popularized as a literary standard by Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio in the 13th and 14th centuries, long before political unification in 1861 made it a national language. Of the major Romance languages, it retains vocabulary and sounds closest to Latin. Its cognate overlap with Spanish, French, and Portuguese makes it a natural second Romance language to add.

Speaker counts are approximate orders of magnitude for learners, not census figures. Family labels follow Glottolog-style classification; vitality notes (when shown) follow UNESCO WAL / Ethnologue-style framing and should be re-checked for program planning.

Sources

How to start

  1. Pick one free course (or free-with-upgrades) below and finish a short beginner unit before hopping apps.
  2. Bookmark one dictionary or grammar reference and look up every unknown word for a week.
  3. Add 10–15 minutes of listening most days — news, radio, or a teaching channel.
  4. Drill vocabulary with First 500 words , then situational lists in topic decks .
  5. Go deeper with the Language Hacks – Italian series · Buy on Amazon.
  6. When ready, use a tutor marketplace listing below for short speaking sessions.

Some outbound links may earn us a commission. Commission never affects inclusion or ranking. Full disclosure.

Resource Type Levels Cost Verified
Alison Italian courses
Well-known learning resource.
course paid A1-B2 freemium 2026-08-02
Babbel Italian
Beginner path.
course paid A1-A2 paid
Clozemaster Italian
Sentence-based cloze practice.
course paid A2-C1 freemium
Coffee Break Italian
Friendly audio course podcast.
course paid A1-B1 freemium
Coursera Italian courses
Well-known learning resource.
course paid A1-B2 freemium
Drops Italian
Well-known learning resource.
course paid A1-A2 freemium
Duolingo Italian
Structured beginner practice.
course paid A1-A2 freemium
edX Italian courses
Well-known learning resource.
course paid A1-B2 freemium
FluentU Italian
Authentic video with interactive captions.
course paid A2-C1 paid
Glossika Italian
Well-known learning resource.
course paid A1-C1 paid
Italian online grammar (CyberItalian free tier)
Online Italian course with free starting units.
course paid A1-B1 freemium
ItalianPod101
Pod101-style audio and video lessons with a free tier.
course paid A1-C1 freemium
Lingvist Italian
Well-known learning resource.
course paid A1-B2 freemium
Mango Languages Italian
Well-known learning resource.
course paid A1-B2 paid
Memrise Italian
Video and spaced-repetition vocabulary course.
course paid A1-B1 freemium
MosaLingua Italian
Well-known learning resource.
course paid A1-B2 paid
Rocket Italian
Interactive course with audio and grammar.
course paid A1-B2 paid
Rosetta Stone Italian
Immersion-style commercial course.
course paid A1-B1 paid

Know a better classroom-friendly resource for Italian? Suggest it with attribution.