No time to read this? Why not find something to study instead? A1 – Beginner/Elementary | A2 – Pre-Intermediate | B1 – Intermediate | B2 – Upper-Intermediate | C1 – Advanced | C2 – Proficiency | What’s my level? | Italian level test

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Buondì.

When an article like this one gets picked up by our expensive bulk mailing system to be sent to the tens of thousands of people who have chosen to receive club news, promotions (scroll down), and NAGS ABOUT MAKING THE MOST OF OUR FREE MATERIAL (see below, and the P.S.), quite often someone will reply, in Spanish, something like “no hablo ingles”.

Years back I got bored of asking them why they filled in a form IN ENGLISH to receive email communications IN ENGLISH. These days I just sigh, and unsubscribe them.

More irritating than that is the woman – I won’t mention her name – who subscribed to one or other of our lists using an email account on which she’s set up an auto-responder message, which replies something like “I rarely check this email so if it’s important, please phone me instead.”

Every time I send a bulk email to whichever list that is, that autoresponder message pops into my inbox seconds later. Va bene, at least I know the bulk mailiing got sent.

But unlike banks and so on, who are supposedly customer-focused, hah hah, I never use ‘no reply’ emails to communicate with people, so actually do see – and read – any responses. If you have a stupid auto-responder message, be aware that someone far away is muttering curses at you while you’ve relaxing ‘out of office’.

Back in the day, that’s to say before the European Union’s latest data protections, I at least had the satisfaction of knowing that tot percentage of the tens of thousands of club members received/opened the emailed article.

But now that no longer happens. There’s no legit way of knowing. Bulk mailing these days is like dropping a stone down a very deep, dark well, then listening for the splash. Which doesn’t come.

A common response to ‘club’ emails (like this one) is a brief phrase, perhaps in English, often not, saying something like:

“I want to learn Italian”.

Wow, you amaze me, I exclaim sarcastically. So what’s stopping you? Idiot.

So, just to restate how the club works, for the thousands of you who weren’t paying attention when you chose to receive articles like this one via email:

1.) Everything on the club website is free.

2.) You don’t need to be a ‘member’ to access it. There are no user names, no login processes, no passwords.

3.) Use the website in any way you wish, free, with no restriction on time, approach, level, and so on.

4.) But PEOPLE BEING PEOPLE (and I am a person, too), they’ll discover a good resource online, make plans to go back and profit from it, but never do. Mea culpa.

5.) Hence the emailed articles: a weekly reminder to get your act together, plus often an attempt to sell you something (see below) so we can pay the club’s bills. We’re currently making a loss, which is a bore.

All this is actually explained to people in advance, for instance on the website’s Join page.

But people don’t read any longer. Especially now with AI offering to summarise emails for people.

I got a warning last week, from a company that provides useful bits and pieces for website owners – to do with sending emails, I won’t bore you with the details.

Basically they were saying that the AI in iPhones will now be reading the emails that marketers (and language educators) send out, which people have actively chosen to receive, presumably to save iPhone owners from having to exercise their brains/waste time on Daniel’s drivel.

(Holds up middle finger.)

Summarise this, Apple.

OK, so that’s the rant.

Now, dear reader, for if you have got this far, you are evidently one of the few readers left, so dear to me, here’s the NAG part.

In every, single club email I remind people in the P.S. (scroll right down past the promotion to verify this) that reading and listening to Italian will speed up your learning, especially your comprehension skills, which I know from thirty-plus years of language teaching that the majority of learners neglect.

And that you can do that for free at our other website EasyItalianNews.com.

Yesterday I was browsing their numbers for August and I noticed that fewer and fewer people are signing up for the three free emailed bulletins they publish and email out each week.

That’s AI again, probably. The world is going to hell in a handbasket.

But, BUT, I thought…

There are approximately thirty-five thousand club members. People who are supposedly learning Italian, yet less than half that number of EasyItalianNews.com subscribers.

This is not for want of nagging.

The probable explanation is that people are dumb about language-learning, believing (tell me it’s not so, Joe) that FIRST I NEED TO LEARN ALL THE GRAMMAR. THEN, I WILL READ, LISTEN AND SPEAK.

Which is total nonsense, as I proved to club members years back by learning Swedish (their choice) and demonstrating that regular listening, reading and speaking will reliably get you from zero to hero.

I listen to Swedish most days, chat to a native speaker most weeks, and can claim (approximately) to be an autonomous user of the language (i.e. B1-B2), having hardly ever visited the country and barely having studied the language at all, perhaps just a few weeks of incomprehensible grammar at the start.

Practice + Time = Learning

Reading & listening to the language you hope to master is also not boring, so easy to build into a habit which is sustainable over time.

Yesterday I had an email from someone who’s bought various of our ‘easy reader’ ebooks (see promotion below), and read them, but never thought to listen to the online audio which, for best results should be used together with the written text.

When he finally decided to give it a go, it was much too fast!!

Beh, è così.

Neglect the skills work and the result will be that you won’t be able to understand what people say to you, or enjoy and learn from online media.

Your bad.

Did I mention that EasyItalianNews.com is completely free?

Did I mention that less than half of people receiving this emailed article are profiting from it?

I rest my case. Consider yourself nagged.

Alla prossima settimana!

2026 Back to School Sale! ‘Easy reader’ ebook picks at your level

Last Monday we announced that our 2026 ‘Back to School’ Sale had begun. Find out more here.

So today, as part of this promotion, I’m going to give you my top ebook picks for beginner, intermediate, and advanced-learners of Italian – I hope there’ll be something here that grabs you!

When I say ‘my top picks’, what I mean is the ebooks that I have enjoyed the most (I read them all, multiple times, during the editing and publishing process).

My criteria is just that: enjoyment. Why?

Because as a language-learner myself, I find that if there’s a story that engages me (whether it’s a news article, or fiction, like our ‘easy readers’), I’ll keep turning the page.

And if I can’t (metaphorically) put an ebook down, my reading comprehension skills improve, and with them my knowledge of vocabulary, and my confidence with the grammar of the language I’m learning.

As any teacher (or student) knows, boredom is the enemy! So a writer that knows how to craft a text so that it pulls you in and won’t let go, even if it’s ‘just’ language-study material, is indeed a useful ally!

Don’t forget, the 2026 Back to School Sale is on! To get 25% off everything in your shopping cart, copy/paste the coupon code, which is:

2026-Back-to-School-25%-Off

Bene, let’s get to it. I’m on the Catalog page of our online shop, starting a little way down, where it says ‘Italian Easy Readers’ (if you’re learning another language, you’ll need to scroll down the Catalog page and make your own selections, sorry!)

So we have seventeen easy reader ebooks for A1 and A2 students, six at A1 (the lowest level), eight at the ‘half-level’ A1/2, and three at A2 (the harder ones). If you’re not sure which level is right for you, use the Free Sample links and take a look. You should be able to get the gist of the story with only occasional use of a dictionary.

N.b. This article was written a couple of years ago. Since then we’ve published other ebooks, so the selection at your level is probably even more ample than described below. Our Catalog page is always up-to-date, so includes the most recent titles, and free sample chapters!

So honestly? I enjoyed all seventeen. but I’ve been strict with myself and whittled the total down to just two at each level, concentrating on the ones I liked the MOST – the stories that made me actually care about the characters, and about what happened to them next!

(These are extracts from our Catalog page, so you can also see the price, the available formats, and a link to the free sample chapter for each title…)

A1

Colpo di forbici (A1) £9.99 Download FREE sample (.pdf, .epub, .mobi/Kindle)
Rosa la cuoca disastrosa (A1) £9.99 Download FREE sample (.pdf, .epub, .mobi/Kindle)

A1/2

Il giocoliere (A1/2) £9.99 Download FREE sample (.pdf, .epub, .mobi/Kindle)
L’ascensore (A1/2) £9.99 Download FREE sample (.pdf, .epub, .mobi/Kindle)

A2

Cielo libero (A2) £9.99 Download FREE sample (.pdf, .epub, .mobi/Kindle)
L’amore ai tempi del supermercato (A2) £9.99 Download FREE sample (.pdf, .epub, .mobi/Kindle)

What if those were too easy for you? Nessun problema. For ‘intermediate’ learners we have loads and loads of materials – twenty-two separate titles!

The hard part was choosing between them, but again, I’ve been strict and narrowed it down to two stories at each half level…

A2/B1

2 giugno 1946 (A2/B1) £9.99 Download FREE sample (.pdf, .epub, .mobi/Kindle)
Il campo di papaveri (A2/B1) £9.99 Download FREE sample (.pdf, .epub, .mobi/Kindle)

B1

Caccia all’autografo (B1) £9.99 Download FREE sample (.pdf, .epub, .mobi/Kindle)
Dante, gatto vagante (B1) £9.99 Download FREE sample (.pdf, .epub, .mobi/Kindle)

B1/B2

L’imperatore e i giochi (B1/2) £9.99 Download FREE sample (.pdf, .epub, .mobi/Kindle)
Segreti e polpette (B1/2) £9.99 Download FREE sample (.pdf, .epub, .mobi/Kindle)

B2

Natale a sorpresa (B2) £9.99 Download FREE sample (.pdf, .epub, .mobi/Kindle)
Le italiane (B2) £9.99 Download FREE sample (.pdf, .epub, .mobi/Kindle)

Hope there was something there that called out “Read me!”

But if you looked at the sample chapters and they were STILL to simple for you, firstly, well done for reading Italian for such confidence, and secondly, brace yourself now for the hard stuff!

B2/C1

Prometeo e la guerra dei titani (B2/C1) £9.99 Download FREE sample (.pdf, .epub, .mobi)
Il bar (B2/C1) £9.99 Download FREE sample (.pdf, .epub, .mobi)

C1

La commediante (C1) £9.99 Download FREE sample (.pdf, .epub, .mobi)
I racconti della vestale (C1) £9.99 Download FREE sample (.pdf, .epub, .mobi)

C1/C2

Anselmo e l’omicidio di Giovanni Borgia (C1/2) £9.99 Download FREE sample (.pdf, .epub, .mobi/Kindle)
Il vulcano (C1/2) £9.99 Download FREE sample (.pdf, .epub, .mobi/Kindle)

C2

La Via Francigena (C2) £9.99 Download FREE sample (.pdf, .epub, .mobi/Kindle)
La carriera – dietro le quinte del Palio di Siena (C2) £9.99 Download FREE sample (.pdf, .epub, .mobi/Kindle)

Bene. Hope you found lots that will keep you reading in and listening to Italian this autumn/fall!

The prices marked above are the usual, year-round prices but with the 2026 ‘Back to School’ promotion (which ends on Sunday September 13th 2026) everything in our online store (EasyReaders.org) is 25% cheaper!

Copy and paste the coupon code 2026-Back-to-School-25%-Off into your shopping cart, then scroll down to check the cart total has been reduced by 25%.

Make your selections today!

EasyReaders.org

N.b. Check out the ‘easy reader’ ebook MULTIPACKS, which get you a three-for-two deal, or better.

AND the 25% discount!

Assuming you remember to use the coupon code, that is…

2026-Back-to-School-25%-Off

P.S.

And here’s an ineffective reminder to read/listen to Tuesday’s bulletin of news from EasyItalianNews.com.

You know, the club has something like thirty-five THOUSAND ‘members’? Yet EasyItalianNews.com has less than half of that number of subscribers?

Reading/listening practice will help you consolidate the Italian you’re studying, expand your vocabulary, and build vital comprehension skills.

EasyItalianNews.com is FREE to read/listen to.

Subscribing, and so receiving all three text + audio bulletins of ‘easy’ news via email each week – on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays – is also FREE.

Just enter your email address on this page and click the confirmation link that will be sent to you.

SO HOW COME SO FEW CLUB MEMBERS ARE DOING THIS????

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OnlineItalianClub.com | EasyItalianNews.com | Shop (ebooks) | Shop (online lessons)

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No longer interested?

All bulk emails we send (including this one) contain an unsubscribe link, usually at the bottom. Scroll down to find it, click the link and select ‘unsubscribe’. That will permanently remove your email address from our mailing list.

No time to read this? Why not find something to study instead? A1 – Beginner/Elementary | A2 – Pre-Intermediate | B1 – Intermediate | B2 – Upper-Intermediate | C1 – Advanced | C2 – Proficiency | What’s my level? | Italian level test

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Buondì.

We’re back from our brief, four-night adventure in Toscana, during which time I ate the worst pizza of my whole life. I’ll spare you the details, the experience being too painful to dwell on.

Bug’s being cared for at the petting zoo, Mondays to Fridays, which is a relief, as keeping him busy twenty-four hours a day was hard work.

Stefi’s putting on a dress and makeup each morning and spending her days at the reception desk of our Italian school in Bologna.

She’s the one with striking grey hair, by the way. When I’m out with Bug, every time he sees a woman with grey hair – in the park, in the supermarket – he yells out “Mamma!” We get some strange looks.

And me? Well, life these days is a mix of medical visits and computer.

The ‘otorinolaringoiatra’ (‘ortorino’ for short, ear doctor in English) fixed my hearing on Monday, which was a relief as I’d been deaf for two months or so. That said, Bug’s howling is now uncomfortably loud, rather than an ignorable background hum.

And the ’ematologo’ (hematologist) shrugged and decided to try me on weekly injections rather than the daily pills I’ve been swallowing for sixteen years, each single syringe costing the astronomical sum of €160 (around $185 of those funny, green US dollars).

I was shocked! Still, as my now doctor daughter pointed out, it’s covered by the SSN (Servizio Sanitario Nazionale = National Health Service), so costs me not a euro cent. They even gave me a paper bag to carry my $750-worth of meds home in, along with an ice pack to keep the contents cool between refrigerators.

I wondered, briefly, if I should be paying more tax, but then remembered that a couple of decades ago, when we first started the school, a glitch in the laws governing IVA (l’Imposta sul Valore Aggiunto = Value Added Tax) had us paying an additional 20% percent tax for several years while ALL OUR COMPETITORS WERE EXEMPT.

That’s the sort of market perversion that Italy is prone to, but which feels incredibly unjust! It’s almost worth being ill to get my own back.

So that’s the medical stuff, the rest is all computer, in particular our ebooks store, which started its ‘Back to School -25% promotion’ on Monday.

The ebooks are mostly good. They’re valuable study aids, instantly downloadable, and there are free chapters to sample for everything, so you can try before you buy. It’s all nice and clear, the prices are reasonable, so what could go wrong?

Yet the customer service involved is a pain. How am I supposed to know what’s wrong with your iPad, if you don’t? It just stopped working, you say? It always used to work! No, nothing has changed with our ebooks. Take your device to the Apple Store and ask them.

I particularly hate ‘chargebacks’, which are rare but expensive and INFURIATING. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, then good for you. You’re therefore welcome in our store – just ask if you need anything, I’m here to help.

But if you’re the sort of American (it’s always them) who buys things online, scans your credit card statement for unrecognised transactions, then – finding one and not recognising the amount (your bank converted it from British pounds, so it looks odd) – you use your SPECIAL LEVEL OF PROTECTION, reserved for inconsiderate morons who shouldn’t be allowed plastic cards in the first place, report to your bank that you’ve been defrauded, and reclaim your money.

Not only is this very vexing – that you did your ebook downloads and then reclaimed your payment – but our payment processor charges us a substantial fee each time, and the process of contesting your claim takes hours.

We’re warned that we should reply to each chargeback with evidence (proof of downloads, emails sent to the errant buyer, etc.) or our seller reputation will be damaged. But also told that it’s the buyer’s card company who will make the decision, so we have a snowball’s chance in hell. And must pay the fee in any case.

If your name is Fernando, and you live in the USA, then yes, I’m talking about you. You cost us money, cost me time and sleep, and won’t even answer emails enquiring what the problem was. Such behaviour indicates either fraud or gross incompetence, neither of which are nice to deal with.

A few years back a woman donated to https://easyitaliannews.com/, which was kind, but then – spying an ‘unauthorised transaction’ on her card statement – got right on to her card company and initiated the chargeback proceedure, with the results described above.

She got her money back (I’d have refunded it anyway, if she’d asked – who wants cash from an unwilling donor?), we were charged a hefty fee, and I wasted hours of time arguing with computers. And then, a month later, there she was again with a donation. She’s sent a small sum each month since. People, huh?

Così. That’s what I get up to when not doing ‘visite mediche’. Fun, fun, fun, ’til daddy takes the laptop away, and chucks it in the recycling, where it will no longer have the power to wind me up.

Details of the ebook promo are below.

If interested, do PLEASE download free sample chapters first, experiment with them on the device or devices you intend to use them on, ask for help (politely) if you need it, and remember that we bill in GBP (British pounds) not any kind of dollars, euros, yen, etc.

Read the details of the promotion carefully and don’t forget to use the coupon code – someone always does.

Alla prossima settimana!

2026 ‘Back to School’ Sale! 25% Off Ebooks for Language Learners

The 2026 EasyReaders.org ‘Back to School’ promotion has begun!

Which means that students of Italian, Spanish, French, and German can save 25% on ebooks to supplement or guide their language learning.

Everything in our ebooks store, EasyReaders.org, is a quarter cheaper if you remember to use coupon code 2026-Back-to-School-25%-Off

Ebooks for students of Italian, Spanish, French, and German can be found on our Catalog page, where everything is organised by language, type, and level.

Or follow these links:

Italian | Spanish | French | German

Use the following coupon code to save 25% on your orders, for as long as the promotion lasts, with no minimum or maximum spend:

2026-Back-to-School-25%-Off

First make your selection from our range of ebooks, which have been especially written to keep you interested and so making progress.

Then go to your shopping cart and apply coupon code 2026-Back-to-School-25%-Off to reduce the cart total by 25%.

Scroll down to verify that the cart total has been reduced by 25% BEFORE proceeding with your payment…

Coupon code 2026-Back-to-School-25%-Off is good until midnight on Sunday September 13th 2026.

You can use it as often as you wish until then, with no minimum or maximum spend.

Do find some time to stock up on the easy readers, parallel texts and grammar workbooks you’ll need to improve the language you’re learning –  at an unbeatable price – as the next sale won’t be until 2027, so a long way off!

Browse our Catalog now: Italian | Spanish | French | German

And don’t forget to apply Coupon code 2026-Back-to-School-25%-Off in your shopping cart, to reduce the total price by 25%.

P.S.

And here’s Wednesday’s reminder to read/listen to Tuesday’s bulletin of news from EasyItalianNews.com.

Reading/listening practice will help you consolidate the Italian you’re studying, expand your vocabulary, and build vital comprehension skills.

EasyItalianNews.com is FREE to read/listen to.

Subscribing, and so receiving all three text + audio bulletins of ‘easy’ news via email each week – on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays – is also FREE.

Just enter your email address on this page and click the confirmation link that will be sent to you.

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OnlineItalianClub.com | EasyItalianNews.com | Shop (ebooks) | Shop (online lessons)

OnlineFrenchClub.com | OnlineSpanishClub.com | OnlineGermanClub.com

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No longer interested?

All bulk emails we send (including this one) contain an unsubscribe link, usually at the bottom. Scroll down to find it, click the link and select ‘unsubscribe’. That will permanently remove your email address from our mailing list.