I detest going to the post office in Italy. Absolutely hate it. Loathe it.
So I was tempted to give today’s Italian Conversation a really snide title.
But I managed to resist.
Actually, I’m still struggling with the urge to be sarcastic.
But maybe you really LIKE going to the post office?
In which case, today’s Italian Conversation will have you curling your toes in pleasure.
And we’ve finally managed to get the audio right, too.
The volunteers recording the dialogue have nice clear voices, speak at a reasonable pace, and actually sound helpful and happy to have served you.
Just don’t expect it to be like that in real life.
Click here to listen | All Italian Conversations | Listening index
The lowdown on Italian easy readers
Ever wondered how OnlineItalianClub.com pays its bills, while helping people around the world learn Italian better and faster?
Here’s the lowdown, and in particular, the reasoning behind the offer on our new Italian easy reader.
In our online shop we sell e-books and online Italian lessons.
The majority of our e-books are Italian ‘easy readers’.
‘Easy readers’ are simplified stories which are designed to build your confidence reading and listening to Italian.
They’ll also help you consolidate the grammar and vocabulary you are probably studying, or will have studied in the past.
Basically, we’re trying to get you into the habit of ‘using’ your Italian, rather than just studying it from a grammar book.
Which will hopefully keep you motivated, and also prepare you for occasions when you’ll need to speak and listen to the language.
Going back to the habit bit, to keep you interested we need to keep publishing new materials.
Fortunately, we have a talented team of Italian teachers who like writing this stuff and value the chance to earn some extra cash…
The circle is squared, as they say.
So, every couple of weeks, we publish a new Italian easy reader.
For the first week we always offer it at a discount, which helps us cover the cost of paying the teacher who wrote it (it doesn’t, but it’s a start.)
The discount drives sales by rewarding our hard-core loyal ‘members’, some of whom buy EVERYTHING we publish (grazie mille!)
It also encourages bargain hunters to click their way to our online shop and try, maybe for the first time, something that we know will do them good, but at a very special price!
Which brings me back to the here and now, and to our new Italian easy reader, ‘Aria di festa‘. 
It’s a nice story about a restaurant critic and ‘slow food’ enthusiast who proposes a series of articles on the summer’s ‘feste’, with the idea of getting an expenses paid holiday and gastronomic tour. But he’s almost immediately disappointed with what he finds…
Now naturally we don’t expect you to just buy ‘Aria di festa’ on faith, based on the attractive cover image and because we’re nice people…
Absolutely not. In fact, we’d much rather you took a look at the free sample chapter (.pdf) first.
Read chapter 1 on us, listening to the audio at the same time (the audio for the whole story is free online to listen to as often as you want.)
Then, when you’ve satisfied yourself that this is just what you need to give your Italian a boost, nip over to our online shop to get the full version.
Do it this week, and you’ll save yourself 25% on the usual easy reader price – €7.50, instead of €9.99.
(The ‘launch offer’ ends on Sunday sometime. Exactly when depends on which time zone you’re in.)
Buy ‘Aria di festa’ | Browse all Italian easy readers