6 Best Italian Audiobooks For Beginners With Study Guide [2025]

I love learning languages with audiobooks. They have engaging stories set in Italy, so they bring me closer to the culture, people, and traditions. They also use simple and everyday vocabulary, so I can learn how to communicate in real-life conversations and pronounce words correctly.

The best part is that I can listen to them while doing other things in my life, such as driving, walking in nature, or cleaning my apartments, and still learn a language.

I’ve already learned 3 foreign languages and keep learning more. Audiobooks are always a part of my language journey.

In this article, I’ll give you the best Italian audiobooks for beginners. You can start listening to them today and have fun learning Italian, even as a complete beginner.

Let’s explore them together.

6 Best Italian Audiobooks For Beginners

Here is a list of the 6 best Italian audiobooks for beginners. I’ve ranked them from the easiest for absolute beginners to the most difficult ones that will take you to the intermediate Italian level:

1. Learn Italian: 3 Books In 1
2. 101 Conversations In Simple Italian
3. Short Stories In Italian
4. Easy Italian Phrase Book
5. Conversational Italian Dialogues
6. Italian Short Stories For Beginners

1. Learn Italian: 3 Books In 1

If you’re an absolute beginner, I recommend you start with this audiobook. It includes the basic topics every language learner needs to learn. This audiobook will help you to learn basic grammar and vocabulary with over 1000 simple phrases.

Once you understand the very basics, it’ll give you more than 100 easy conversations in which you can practice the basics you learned. In the end, it also includes short stories to wrap it all up and have fun immersing more into the Italian language.

It’s an audiobook with 3 series, each for a different purpose. You’ll get comfortable with the pronunciation and structure of the language with its simple phrases and dialogues.

➡ Get Learn Italian: 3 Books In 1 here & start listening.

2. 101 Conversations In Simple Italian

Once you learn the basics of the 3 books in 1, I recommend switching to 101 Conversations in Simple Italian. This audiobook is perfect for learning basic vocabulary. The dialogues are set in everyday situations such as meeting friends, making arrangements, going to shops, going to cafés, or traveling around.

It’ll help you make the next step and create basic sentences with the vocabulary you’ve learned. The dialogues will take you to the Italian environment, and learning the language will come naturally. The stories are set in the capital of Italy, Rome, and make you want to eat fresh pasta. 😍

With this book, you’ll learn about 15,000 Italian words. Each conversation has only 150 words, making it easier for you to process and understand. Each chapter also includes a list of words translated into English, so you don’t get distracted by having to look up every word.

It also has a plot summary to double-check whether you’ve understood the conversation well.

➡ Get 101 Conversations In Simple Italian here & start listening.

3. Short Stories In Italian

After learning the basics, it’s time to have fun with some short stories. Oly Richards has such engaging and fun stories, so you won’t even realize you’re learning Italian.

The audiobook contains 8 stories, each in different genres. Some are fiction, historical, thriller, romantic, and some comedy. Oly Richards claims that learning a language with his fun stories automatically eliminates the frustration of learning a new language. And I completely agree.

The stories will capture you, and you’ll soon feel confident in understanding Italian.

Each story also includes the plot summary, a bilingual vocabulary list, and comprehension questions to double-check if you understood the stories.

Once you get through the mark of being an absolute beginner, grab this audiobook and let these stories help you to advance with your Italian language.

➡ Get Short Stories In Italian here & start listening.

4. Easy Italian Phrase Book

For those of you who are a bit obsessed with travel as much as I am, I’ve got this Italian Phrase Book for you. It includes explicit phrases you would need to travel to Italy.

This audiobook will equip you with sentences you’ll need to communicate in common situations, such as at the airport, booking tickets, getting to your hotel, or ordering food in a restaurant.

And who of you already know, here at Voices of Travel, I’m all about learning languages for travel. So, I had to include this book in the list.

At the beginning of the audiobook, you’ll get a guide on pronouncing consonants and vowels in the Italian language. After, each phrase comes with an exact English translation. The book contains 1500 phrases altogether.

In the end, you’ll also get a list of tips for Italian learning.

➡ Get Easy Italian Phrase Book here & start listening.

5. Conversational Italian Dialogues

If you’ve already learned the basics and want to challenge yourself with handling everyday life issues in Italian, go for this audiobook.

Apart from the other audiobooks, Conversational Italian Dialogues focuses on dialogues where two people solve a typical real-life problem. These are everyday life situations, such as going to the doctor, finding a job, getting a residence card, etc.

So, this audiobook will push you to practice Italian as you would in life in Italy. It’ll significantly help you overcome the fear of speaking Italian.

The audiobook includes 100 Italian dialogues, each with an English translation for you to double-check if you understand it correctly.

You’ll finally get out of your comfort zone and prepare to face everyday life in Italy – as I had to when I moved to northern Italy.

➡ Get Conversational Italian Dialogues here & start listening.

👉 READ ALSO: How To Set Achievable Language Learning Goals: 9-Step Guide

6. Italian Short Stories For Beginners

Finally, I have an audiobook to take you from the beginner to the intermediate level. I recommend you listen to this book at the end. It uses more complex sentences with slightly advanced vocabulary.

This audiobook will familiarize you with slang you might not understand at first. It’ll also teach you the future tense and equip you with more travel terms for a better travel experience in Italy.

This audiobook includes 20 easy-to-understand stories/dialogues set in everyday life situations. At the end of each story, you’ll get a plot summary and a list of the most relevant vocabulary to remember.

Afterward, it’ll challenge you with tricky questions to make you dive into the story and double-check if you understood it correctly. But don’t worry if you can’t answer them. There is a short answer for you.

➡ Get Italian Short Stories For Beginners here & start listening.

Where Can You Listen To Italian Audiobooks?

I’ve been using Audible to listen to audiobooks for over 2.5 years now. It’s one of the best audiobook platforms, with thousands of choices.

If you want to try my method of learning the Italian language using one of these audiobooks, sign up today for free. You’ll get 1 month of a free trial, including 1 free Italian audiobook.

After that, you only pay about $8 a month, for which you’ll get 1 audiobook.

➡ Get Audible here and start listening to Italian audiobooks.

💡 NOTE: If any of these audiobooks aren’t on Audible, try Spotify. You can also order the paperback version, which includes free audio, which is a great option.

Benefits Of Learning Italian With Audiobooks

Here are a few reasons why I love learning languages with audiobooks and how these Italian books will help you on your language journey:

• perfect to understand the language structure
• help you with pronunciation right from the start
• use simple vocabulary and real dialogues from everyday life
• their fun stories will motivate you to learn Italian
• you can listen to them anytime and wherever you are (when commuting to work and school, walking)
• ability to listen to learn Italian even when doing other activities (cleaning a house, doing sports)
• help you memorize vocabulary in an easier way

How To Learn Italian With Audiobooks

I have my own method for learning languages with these audiobooks that I’d love to share with you.

So here are the steps I recommend taking when listening to your Italian audiobooks to learn Italian along the way:

1. Listen to one section of the audiobook (10 – 15 minutes)
2. Listen to it again, try to catch a few words, and understand the context
3. Get a printed version of the audiobook
4. Highlight words you want to learn
5. Translate the words and write them down in your language notebook
6. Read the section once again and understand the whole section
7. Listen to the section over and over until you understand it very well

Firstly, listen to one section of the audiobook for 10 or 15 minutes. See if you can understand anything. Or simply listen to the pronunciation of the words and get familiar with them. After, listen to it again and try to catch a few words.

Always get a printed version of the audiobook. It’ll speed up your learning process. Once you have the printed text, highlight words you want to learn from the section. Then, translate them and write them down in your language notebook.

After that, you can learn the words using my effective strategies. Then, read the text and see if you can better understand it.

In the end, listen to the section repeatedly until you feel confident and understand it.

💡 PRO TIP: I also listen to one sentence, stop the audio, and read the sentence on my own. It helps me learn how to pronounce the words right from the beginning, which is very important.

BONUS: Most Important Skills Of Language Learning

If you really want to master Italian, you’ve got to focus on 4 key skills: reading, listening, writing, and speaking. Each of them is essential for becoming fluent and feeling confident when using the language.

Trust me, while listening to audiobooks can really help with understanding, it’s important to work on all four skills to truly get the hang of it.

I’ve put together a detailed article that breaks down each skill and offers some great resources to help you improve. Click on the image below to check it out – let’s get your Italian skills to the next level together!

Get My Language Travel Notebook

I’ve also designed a language notebook for you to keep track of new vocabulary. While listening to these audiobooks, you can mark new words down, memorize them, and then return to them when you’re listening and forget the meaning.

Click on the image below and get my language travel notebook:

FAQs

I’ve also answered some of the frequently asked questions about language learning and books. So check my answers below:

Can I Learn Italian Just By Listening?

50%, but not entirely. Listening to Italian will significantly help you understand the language. If you’re a complete beginner and don’t understand anything at the beginning, it’ll be difficult for you to associate the vocabulary with the meaning. But if you get a transcript of what you’re listening to and translate new vocabulary, then it’s 100% possible to learn Italian just by listening.

What Should A Beginner In Italian Read?

101 Conversations In Simple Italian or Short Stories In Italian are the best Italian books for beginners. They’ll teach you basic vocabulary and tenses in everyday life dialogues and short stories.

What’s The Best Way To Learn Conversational Italian?

Practice speaking with an Italian tutor online or an Italian friend. If you practice speaking, it enhances all the other language skills and makes you more confident, that you can actually use the language.

What Is The Best Audiobook For Beginners?

101 Conversations In Simple ‘Language’ is the best audiobook for beginners, because it has short dialogues and everyday conversations, preparing you to speak in various life situations. It also uses simple vocabulary, which makes it easier for you to learn and understand.

How Long Does It Take To Realistically Learn Italian?

6 months to 1 year is a very realistic time to learn Italian. If you already know any other Latin language like Spanish or French, it can take you even less than 6 months, depending on how much time and effort you can put into learning each day.

WRAP-UP: 6 Best Italian Audiobooks For Beginners

These are my favorite Italian audiobooks to boost your Italian language skills. Follow my method to learn Italian with them. Don’t just listen to them; sometimes, we might ignore the content as we’re listening and doing something else.

So take the time, get the transcript as well, and highlight new words you want to learn. Then, memorize them and listen to the story again. You’ll see how much faster you’ll remember the vocabulary.

If you have any questions or need help learning languages, contact me at info(at)voicesoftravel.com.

Happy Listening!