15 Online Language Lessons to Learn Italian for Free

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There are many ways to learn Italian for free.

Wait, did you think learning Italian meant breaking the bank? Think again. The internet is full of Italian language lessons that cost nothing. They come in every format:

With these, you won’t have to worry about spending a single centesimo (“cent”) on your Italian lessons!

You might wonder if these free resources are good quality, though. Don’t worry! I’ve scoured the web to find as many high-quality, free Italian language lessons as I could for you.

Italian is one of the most popular languages among the Fluent in 3 Months Challenge participants, and if you want to learn it too, check out the free resources below.

Learn Italian for Free with Audio Lessons

Listening comprehension is one of the toughest aspects of any foreign language. This is why it’s so important to include audio lessons in your Italian study routine.

Here are some of the better no-cost audio resources I’ve found for Italian:

Learn Italian on Spotify

Learn Italian is a Spotify playlist with over 600 short Italian lessons in audio format.

If you’re an absolute beginner in Italian, this is a good place to start. Most of the audios teach basic expressions for the most common situations you can expect to encounter on holiday in Italy.

Each phrase comes in both English and an audio recording of a native speaker saying the phrase.

Listen to each one multiple times, and be sure to repeat after it out loud, to work on your speaking and listening skills at the same time.

One World Italiano

One World Italiano is bursting with useful Italian learning material.

The website contains a 37-part audio course for beginners, a 6-part course for intermediate students, and a 12-part video course.

In the sidebar, there are many more lessons, as well as reading, writing and listening exercises that you can access for free.

Lessons include a recorded audio with a transcript, but also written explanations and examples. There are interactive exercises and fun activities based on Italian songs.

Foreign Service Institute, Italian FAST

The Italian FAST (Familiarization and Short-term Training) Course by FSI Languages is a selection of 30 lessons that the US government’s Foreign Service Institute uses for training its own employees before they’re stationed overseas.

It’s very structured and thorough, and is especially appealing to language learners who prefer a more classroom-oriented approach.

Click on “Student Text” to download the textbook for the course, which includes instructions for how to use the course. Then follow along with the audio lessons.

The difficulty of lessons increases, but the course allows you to always focus on important parts of the language like grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation.

4 Online Podcasts to Help You Learn Italian for Free

Podcasts are one of my favourite language learning tools, and they’re different from audio lessons.

I’ve found that the best way to learn a new language is to [start speaking from day one](https://www.fluentin3months.com/tedx/, because you will learn a language faster and better if you actively use it.

Podcasts are a great way to learn the correct pronunciation of your target language, so they can help you improve your speaking abilities. They’re also useful to improve your understanding of the language and collect new vocabulary.

But most importantly, they give you conversational Italian, not only structured lessons.

If you want to learn more about the benefits and use of podcasts, check out this post. For now, I’ll introduce you to four free Italian podcasts.

Get your Italian lessons in bite-sized episodes whenever you want, either on your computer, tablet or smartphone.

ItalianPod101

It’s a little-known fact that all of the Innovative Language podcasts, including ItalianPod101, are free to sign up for and offer quite a bit of free content.

Sign up for an ItalianPod101 account and check out the lessons available for your skill level. After listening to these lessons, you’ll have a pretty good understanding of how the Innovative Language program works. Then you can decide if you’re interested in upgrading your account to a paid subscription.

Learn Italian Pod

Learn Italian Pod is a playlist of 50 episodes that keep Italian learning short and sweet.

Each episode starts with a brief anecdote or news story narrated in Italian, followed by an explanation of the most important grammar and vocabulary points from the narration.

And the best is that whether you’re in a queue for only four minutes or have 13 minutes to spare when stuck in a traffic jam, Learn Italian Pod has an episode of the right length.

Con Parole Nostre

Con Parole Nostre is an ongoing podcast that features Italian conversations. The title translates to “with our words”.

The podcast’s topics range from Italian gastronomy to the cultural importance of family, which I find amazing! Not only do you learn more vocabulary, but you also become familiar with topics and conversations of everyday Italian life.

Like Learn Italian Pod, Con Parole Nostre keeps its episodes between five and fifteen minutes. It makes it easy to learn Italian, even with a busy schedule!

6 Free Online Video Channels for Learning Italian

Video lessons are especially useful for beginner and intermediate students.

Having visual cues during a lesson helps you to understand what’s going on. Videos can also hold your attention better than purely audio courses can.

And while they might not be as practical as podcasts because you can’t listen to them while doing other things, they’re really important for articulation. When you watch a person speaking, you can understand better the movements they make with their mouths to produce a sound.

Here are six of my favourite video channels to learn Italian for free!

Speak Italian With Your Mouth Full

With Speak Italian With Your Mouth Full, you can learn about Italian cooking and language at the same time.

The whole playlist is a course made up of 13 lessons.

Each lesson is divided into parts. In part 1, you watch an Italian teacher and chef teach new vocabulary and phrases to a class of students. Parts 2 and 3 are a cooking class where you can observe the students learning to cook an Italian dish while using the language material they just learned.

Videos last between eight and twenty minutes, and they were organised by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Speak Italian With Your Mouth Full is entertaining and interactive: you can hear students learning at the same time as you!

Warning! Watching lessons might make you hungry.

Italian Mastery

Italian Mastery is a YouTube course that contains over 150 detailed lessons about Italian grammar and vocabulary.

With these videos, you can learn about every aspect of grammar that a beginner to intermediate student could want, such as object contracted pronouns, the various future tenses, and even how to swear in Italian!

Italian Mastery also has a playlist on Italian proverbs. You can compare them with the ones we’ve gathered at Fluent in 3 Months in this post!

Learn Italian with Marco

Learn Italian With Marco is a playlist of video lessons from a very cheerful native Italian speaker who will teach you a huge variety of useful Italian phrases.

The narrator explains the relevant grammar and vocabulary for each phrase to help them stick in your mind.

What’s best is that Marco’s channel also features Italian lessons explained in Spanish! So if you’re not a native English speaker and are more comfortable learning Italian from Spanish, you can do that too!

ItalianPod101

Remember ItalianPod101 from the podcast section?

Well, ItalianPod101 has made many of their videos available to everyone on YouTube, so you don’t have to sign up for a paid subscription to access some of their amazing content.

Check out the listening comprehension videos, which contain a dialogue that you’ll be tested on at the end of the video.

If you’re very short on time, watch one of the “Italian in 3 Minutes” videos for a mini Italian lesson.

Italianissimo

Italianissimo is a BBC series from the ‘90s whose goal was to teach Italian to beginners.

It contains a mix of English and Italian and is appropriate even for absolute beginners. Most of the episodes are around 15 minutes long and feature unscripted conversations with Italians.

Try not to laugh too much at the early ‘90s cheesiness of the show – the material is top notch! Ah, and don’t freak out when you hear prices: Italy is not that expensive! Since the show was filmed before the introduction of the Euro, prices are given in lire italiane (“Italian lira”).

Ilenia Zodiaco’s YouTube Channel

Ilenia Zodiaco is an Italian BookTuber and her YouTube Channel is a great platform to browse around.

Ilenia’s Italian is very correct and she articulates her words particularly well, which makes her videos a useful tool for Italian learners. Plus, she talks about literature and reading, so you can also keep up with what Italians read.

Speaking of which… I encourage you to find a couple of book recommendations on her channel. Reading in a language is one of the best ways to pick up vocabulary and grammar!

3 Free Online Italian Courses and Systems

Sometimes it’s just not the right time or place to watch videos or listen to audio lessons. Or maybe listening and watching is not how you prefer to learn a new language.

In any case, take advantage of the courses below so you can study Italian even when “noisy” study methods are out of the question.

Italian Online Club

Italian Online Club is a hidden gem that contains hundreds of lessons for Italian students.

The lessons are organised by difficulty according to CEFR levels, from A1 up to C2.

Click on your level to get started. If you’re not sure of your level, take the placement test by clicking the link at the bottom of the page.

Lessons are kept short and to the point. The website also contains a lot of audio content, but they’re mostly exercises so you can check your progress.

Iluss Free Resources

With Iluss Free Resources, you can learn from structured lessons sorted by skill level.

Each lesson starts with an overview of the grammar point being covered, and then has a series of quizzes to test your knowledge. Many of the quizzes contain fill-in-the-blank questions, but some also include a listening/comprehension component.

The content comes in various formats, including video, audio, and written. One of the advanced lessons introduces you to a classic piece of Italian literature by Leonardo Sciascia!

Duolingo Italian

Duolingo is the go-to app for millions of language learners around the world. It’s perfect for vocabulary and basic grammar exercises to do during your spare moments throughout the day.

While I don’t recommend it be used exclusively, Duolingo Italian can be a very useful supplement to your Italian studies.

It has a competitive system that motivates you to have a daily practice.

Want Even More Resources to Learn Italian?

If you’re looking for more resources, you can always check out my go-to list of Italian resources! It’s a page with all my favourite resources to learn Italian from all over the Internet.

And last but not least, have a look at Fluent in 3 Months’s Italian content as well! We love to serve you native tips and hacks along with themed vocabulary and grammar.

Now that you’re all set to learn Italian on a budget, it’s time to study!

Buona fortuna! (“Good luck!”)