Customer Reviews

Italian at a Glance: Phrase Book & Dictionary for Travelers (Barron's Languages at a Glance)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is an excellent resource for travelers in Italy. Not only is it compact enough to carry with you everywhere - at 3.75 x 6 x .5 inches it's small enough to carry in a purse or coat pocket, and if you're traveling really light, the accompanying phrasebook is even smaller, not much bigger than a folded up sheet of letter-sized paper - but it covers nearly every conceivable situation. I used it, along with the companion cassette tape, on my recent first-time trip to Italy and got along fairly well, whether I was buying a train ticket, asking for an all night pharmacy or trying to decipher a menu. In addition to the phrases and a small dictionary, the book also has handy little sidebars on stuff like tipping, sightseeing and selecting Italian wines. Throw in the travel tips, maps, guide to road signs and grammar guide, and this book is an excellent value and well worth the (miniscule) space it will take up in your luggage.

Let's face it. Phrasebooks are for survival, not for mastering a language during a one week stay, and this pocket size book has served me well. I've been to Italy several times, and, contrary to common belief, not many Italians speak English, particularly in the smaller cities. A phrasebook is a must, and I haven't found one better than the Barron's. It covers emergencies, driving, eating out, sightseeing, clothing, entertaining, shopping, banking, and many more topics. The dictionary in the back covers basic words to assist in communication. The pronunciation guide is first-rate; people were actually able to understand me when I tried the phrases. (Of course, I rarely understood them!)

I particularly appreciated the plastic cover, as my book survived thunderstorms and acted as a coaster at least once. People who already know a romance language will find it easier to pick up these phrases, but anyone with the determination to navigate a foreign country will find it helpful.

I gave this book 5 stars because when I was in Sicily visitng my best friend, it really helped me tremendously. I was fortunate that the staff in Rome and Catania airports spoke English. In the neighboring towns I had to use it frequently. Later on I remembered certain phrases and used it with ease. I couldn't believe that this book was sectioned well with the food descriptions,emergency medical,pharmacy, and in case of auto accidents. At the end of my trip, I was reluctant to give away this book, but she being in the service, I knew she needed it more than me. No sooner than I returned home, I bought a new one for my return trip back. I took this little book everywhere with me along with my passport. I'll be sure to get one for my trip to Paris next year.

Just returned from Florence and other parts of Tuscany. The book is organized by topic (shopping, eating out, sight seeing, etc.)and each page of the separate topic is color-coded, thus it is very easy to use. It contains some everyday/slang (not dirty!) Italian words and shows you how to say all words phonetically. It is also very compact and could fit in your pants pocket or purse. The only downside is that the dictionary in the back of the book is small and it didn't have many of the words we were trying to interpret. I would highly recommend it - it got us through two weeks in Italy and in some rural locations where noone spoke English!

I borrowed this book from a friend to use during my recent trip to Rome. I found it very useful and easy to use. Compact and easy to carry in a purse or pocket. However, I lost it halfway through my trip and could not find another one in Rome! Therefore, I am buying my friend a new one and myself one for reference!

What to make of a phrase book that lists many ways to complain, but none to compliment? Or that lists translations of food names and descriptions of many of the foods and dishes of Italy but, when you want to praise or thank the chef or your host, you find that the word "delicious" is not in this book?

I tried to use this book as a resource while traveling through Italy this month and was, more often than not, frustrated and annoyed by its deficits. On the bright side my phrases lifted from this book occasionally provoked peals of laughter from my Italian cohorts - breaking the ice nicely.

If you stay at a hotel, inn, or private home and want to tell your host that you enjoyed your stay, this book will not tell you how. The dictionary sometimes contradicts the text, which occasionally provoked blank stares. Is the WC a "gabinetto" or a "bagno"? You won't learn the difference in this book.

The sections on dating, meeting, quiet relaxation, sports, and more do not tell you how to thank your new friends for a good time, or any other niceties of social life. There's no way to extend invitations, either.

I mailed a package home from Italy and tried to use this book to communicate my specific wishes in a Sicilian post office - in vain.

Avoid this one. Sure, it's a handy size and has a great vinyl cover but it won't help you nearly enough when you travel to Italy.

I just got back from a week in Rome, and instead of a phrase book, I would recommend buying a compact Italian/English dictionary and then making a list of key phrases (using this dictionary or an online one) and putting them on a Post-It inside the dictionary. There were only a few times during the 8 days I was in Rome that I actually wanted a phrase; instead, what I mostly needed were basic words (esp. when trying to decipher menus), and the dictionary at the back of this book was useless; 90 percent of the words I looked up (in restaurants, at museums, in general conversation, etc.) were not in there. And when my ATM card was stolen and I had to communicate with the police and the bank manager, this book was of no help whatsoever. This is an OK book as phrase dictionaries go, but again, I think what you'll mostly find yourself wanting is a regular dictionary.

I bought both the Berlitz and Barron's phrase books. This review is a comparison of the two.

They are both small enough to fit in a pocket. The Berlitz is 220 pages, the Barron's 320 pages -- the Barron's is marginally thicker. The Berlitz page seems slightly denser, with more lines per page, although I believe the font sizes used are almost identical (Berlitz sans serif (Arial-like), Barron's serif (Roman-like). The Barron's comes with a plastic cover which seems durable. Both are sorted into sections, for example, travel, eating out, etc. Berlitz has a 12 page menu reader. The Barron's covers a little more in 26 pages, including a guide to regional specialties. Barron's has a 47 page Italian-English and English-Italian dictionary. Berlitz is about the same. Both show Italian pronunciations in a phonentically English spelling. Barron's has a larger section on Italian grammar. Both have a good table of contents; only Barron's has an index as well. One small complaint with the copy of the Berlitz I received -- the print flows into the gutter (the spine of the book) too far, so that one has to really bend open the book to read the entire line. I think this will make the book fall apart sooner. One small complaint with the Barron's -- in a few cases they print black font on a dark color background for page headings (e.g., "Telling Time," "Months of the Year") which makes the headings difficult to read.

They are very comparable and both will do the job. Both can server not only as a travel guide, but also as a vocabulary builder for an Italian class. My overall impression is that the Barron's is marginally better.

I completely agree with the previous reviewer's assessement of this book. However, I think the she may have been mistaken about which resource this is. At least in my experience, this is a different book than comes with the Barron's tapes that I purchased. However, if it DOES come with a set of tapes - you're in luck. It is packed with good information.

I purchased Barron's audio cassettes "Getting By in Italian" and the accompanying book was very good. But, I wanted a slightly bigger dictionary, and more useful phrases than I got with the tapes. With no intention of buying another Barron's product, I compared this with a couple of other phrase books and ended up choosing this one.

The "Italian At A Glance" is more useful (for my purposes) than a dictionary and most other phrase books - for not only did it contain complete phrases, useful slang, a map of Italy on the back cover, 2 pages of Italian street signs and more, it also had helpful explanations of the different grades of hotels, travel tips, banking terms, and information about regional foods.

While I wouldn't rely on this to the exclusion of other guide books or audio tapes, I plan to take this is as my one language resource to take carry around Italy.

It's really difficult to put together a phrase book in Italian that will serve everyone's needs. This one is excellent, but the dictionary section needs to be expanded just a little more; and it won't really add to the bulk of this already tiny book. This is one of the language books you should take with you to Italy.