While it is not really neccessary to learn Italian before you take a trip to Italy, Italians really tend to appreciate every attempt you make at communicating in their language. You will find that in the more touristy areas, everyone more or less speaks enough english to communicate with you as needed, but as you get off the beaten path, some Italian skills will be very helpful to you.

That said, I really don't like the standard 'Learn a language' courses, because they tend to teach you phrases that are really not used... so you would be just as well simply speaking English in most cases. If you want to pick up some Italian before your trip, I would urge you to at least get started with a real language course. TELL ME MORE Language Learning Software. uses advanced speech recognition technology that engages you in real-life dialogues and conversations while you are learning, rather than just having you learn key phrases. While it is not cheap (compared to the 29.95 software out there), it is far less expensive than some of the other real courses, like Rosetta Stone. Another good course is Onlingo.

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