Info Incontro Italiano

Are you interested in all things Italian and want to improve your Italian language skills? Already speak a bit of Italian and want to improve? Then Maxmondo Incontro Italiano is for you!

With every issue we offer you information about Italian culture in an audioshow that is accompanied by a magazine.  You will learn about different places, art, food, customs and the people of Italy.  All content is in Italian and especially prepared for learners of Italian by the Incontro Italiano team based in Italy. Incontro Italiano is for intermediate to advanced Italian language students all over the world. On this page we try to answer some common questions:

What material does Incontro Italiano offer?

Incontro Italiano is an audio magazine that is published digitally on our website. Every issue consists of an audio file in mp3 format (30+ minutes) and an accompanying pdf text file with the transcript, vocabolary and exercises (14+ pages). In addition you will find on our website: Italian videos with subtitles in our Online Exra area, an audio podcast with summaries in the Podcast area and a blog with short articles in Italian. We also have a newsletter so that you can receive content in Italian straight in your inbox!

Do you have free material?

Full premium issues of Incontro Italiano are available for purchase as separate issues and as paid subscriptions. We do have some free material: 1. the weekly Incontro Italiano Podcast is availabe for everybody for free, it gives audio summaries of the current issue of Incontro Italiano. Each episode is a few minutes long and occasionally comes with a pdf file with the transcript. Subscribe to the podcast here. 2. We have Online Extra videos in Italian with subtitles and word explanations. These videos are free but we do ask you to register a free user account to be able to access the videos. New videos are regularly added to our video area.

How can I subscribe to Incontro Italiano?

Subscriptions are available in our webshop. Choose your subscription duration and add the product to your cart and proceed through check-out. Once you have completed payment, your first issue will be immediately available in the Premium area of the site. Now that you are a subscriber you will automatically receive access to new issues when they are published.

Can I pay by credit card?

Yes, we use the secure third-party Paypal service to accept payments. On completion of your order in our webshop you will be taken to the secure Paypal site. There you can pay in two ways. Either fill in your credit card details in the area provided, or if you have a Paypal account, use your Paypal account details. In order to purchase it is not necessary to have a Paypal account. An explanation of how to fill in your cerdit card details on the Paypal page is given here. Contact us if you have any questions about payment.

Can I try before I buy? Do you have a sample issue I can try?

Yes, we believe trying a free issue is the best way to find out if Incontro Italiano is suitable for you and to see how it can help you improve your Italian! Some sample pages and audio are available here. All registered users get an additional free issue to try. If you have registered and did not receive your free issue please contact us and we will send you the link.

I have purchased issues or a subscription to Incontro Italiano, how can I access the material?

All issues you have access to are available in the Premium member area of the site. Each issues is listed and has a download button for the audio mp3 file (grey) and the magazine pdf file (red). Right-click these buttons with your mouse and select 'save as' or 'save link as' to save to your local computer. In addition you can listen to the audio directly on the site with the audio player for each issue.

I cannot save the premium files to my computer, can you offer any advice?

If you right-click on the download buttons and do not see the option to 'save as' try this:

1. Check if you have any other options that could be similar to 'save as', for example sometimes you will have 'save link as' and this does the same thing.
2. Try downloading the files using a different browser. Internet Explorer is known to make file downloads more difficult sometimes. Try with the secure, free and and popular Firefox browser , Google Chrome browser or Safari browser.
3. Install a browser add-on to better control the downloading of files from the internet. For the Firefox browser we recommend the DownThemAll add-on.  After installing and restarting the Firefox browser you can right-click on the download buttons and you will see a new option 'Save link with DownThemAll'.
4. If none of this helps you, please contact us and tell us about the problem, please state your operating system, browser and if you previously were able to download files from maxmondo.com.

Can I listen to the audio files on my mp3 player / ipod?

Yes! We think listening to Incontro Italiano audio away from your computer opens up lots of opportunities for you to listen to native Italian regularly. One way of doing this is using an mp3 player and our audio files can be played on all common players. If you are using iTunes you can simply drag the Incontro Italiano audio files onto your player when it is connected to your computer. If you need any specific help on how to put the Incontro Italiano audio files on your particular mp3 player please contact us.

How can I listen to the audio files on CD?

There are many CD burning programs available that will allow you to create a CD with the Incontro Italiano audio mp3 files. Many people create CDs to listen to Incontro Italiano in their car. Did you know you can use iTunes to create an audio CD:

• First make a playlist by going to Files in the top menu bar and then selecting New Playlist. Call it something like 'Incontro Italiano CD'. The playlist will appear in the left hand side column in iTunes.
• Now add mp3 files to the playlist you just created: go the episodes of Incontro Italiano you have already inside iTunes, right-click them and from the menu that appears select 'Add to playlist'>'Incontro Italiano CD'.
• Now right-click on your playlist and select 'Burn playlist to disk', this opens a window where you can decide what kind of disk you want to burn. Make sure to select the disk type your player can handle, for a car probable 'audio cd' .
• You may need any special cd burning software installed on your computer to work with iTunes, although it appears this is not necessary.

How can I cancel my subscription? What is your refund policy?

Please contact us and tell us to cancel your subscription. We will refund you for any issues remaining in your subscription period. We offer a no-questions-asked refund guarantee so you have no risk.

How can I get access to past issues of Incontro Italiano?

Back-issues are available for purchase in our webshop and will be immediately available for you to download in the Premium area of the site on completion of payment. If you are a subscriber you have the benefit of requesting back-issues at the same low price as subscription issues. Please send us an email with your request and mention the issue numbers/titles of the back-issues you want. We will process your request manually and backdate your subscription. We'll send you an email that your back-issues are available in the Premium area.

I am Italian language teacher, how can I offer Incontro Italiano to my students?

We have a program for Italian language teachers and schools to offer Incontro Italiano to your students. Please contact us and we will let you know the current details of the program.

Can I suggest a topic for Incontro Italiano or give you feedback?

We love to hear your suggestions and feedback, please contact us and we will consider your ideas. We also have a reader survey open that you can complete.

What others are saying about Incontro Italiano (testimonials)

"I am going to subscribe....I've been studying Italian for about 5 years. These classes concentrated mostly on grammar and there was very little emphasis on simple conversation. I decided to leave that class and I am now taking a conversational course. This is working out much better and my skills are much more refined. One of my weak areas is listening comprehension. I listened to the free sample and was very impressed. This is exactly what I need to improve my listening skills." - Bud L. (USA)

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"My husband came across your site after searching for Italian video on the web and we have been fans of Incontro Italiano ever since! The online videos are well chosen and the subtitles are very useful for us, we will definitely keep checking the site for new videos regularly Grazie e buon giorno!" - Caroline (USA)

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"Thank you for the wonderful magazine Incontro Italiano. I am always looking forward to the next issue. The audio is well done and the transcript with word glossary is perfect for me. Thank you for all your work!" - Richard (Canada)

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"Grazie per i video e la rivista molto utile." - Inez (Spagna)

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"Incontro Italiano makes learning fun. I tell everyone about the audio magazine. I absolutely love it." Mark (UK)

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"Bravo Incontro Italiano! Complimenti!" - Hans (Germania)

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"Ho appena scoperto il tuo website e podcast due giorni fa, e mi piacciono molto! Non vedo l'ora di ascoltare il prossimo episodio. Grazie mille per il tuo buonissimo sito! Quando l'ho trovato, era come se avevo trovato un vero tesoro! Buon lavoro!" - Jane (UK)

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"Maxmondo.com è stato un grande aiuto per mantenere e migliorare la mia conoscenza della lingua italiana. Ho anche sentito voci diverse, e conoscere luoghi e persone diverse in Italia. Grazie mille! - Maxmondo.com has been a great help to maintain and improve my knowledge of Italian. I also like hearing different voices, and to learn about different places and people in Italy. Thanks a lot!" - Lisa (USA, Nashville, Tennessee)

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Dear Incontro Italiano Team, I enjoy your audio magazine immensely! It is full of interesting and very entertaining information about Italy and it is just a pleasure to listen to all your beautiful voices!! Thank you! Greetings - Gisela (Germany)

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"An unrivaled resource for mastering Italian!

I've been an Incontro Italiano subscriber for 9 months, and my Italian has improved greatly in that time. I highly recommend these podcasts to anyone who would like to improve their Italian and learn more about Italy.

What are the advantages of studying with Incontro Italiano? In my experience, the combination of podcast and full transcript is a powerful study aid. When each new issue is released, I listen to the complete audio 3 or 4 times, trying to understand as much as possible. Then I listen to the audio while following along in the transcript. Advanced words and idioms are set in bold face, with definitions in the margins. The key is context. The issues are thematic, and each issue is divided into articles. So one is learning the words in the context of the articles, seeing and hearing them simultaneously.

The material is exclusively in Italian, and the audio features only native speakers. I consider this to be a crucial advantage. To master Italian, one needs full immersion and lots of exposure to Italian spoken at normal speed. In my opinion, Incontro Italiano is the only available podcast with which one can progress beyond the level of a beginner.

Besides being an excellent tool for learning Italian, these podcasts are rich with insight into life and current events in Italy, the Italian people and their traditions. The topics are truly engaging and that has helped me find the motivation to study regularly. The transcript is just one part of the magazine, which is very professionally prepared, and which contains related articles and grammar exercises. There are abundant supplementary materials, including online videos.

Advice for beginners: to get the most benefit from these podcasts, I think one should have completed at least an introductory Italian course. The idea is to reach a moderate level of listening comprehension and get a basic understanding of the grammar. After that, you can sit back, tune in, and enjoy learning one of the most beautiful languages in the world.

In boca al lupo!" - Ryan R. (USA/Germany)

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"Highly recommended course."

"As a mature subscriber and fairly slow learner I have found Incontro Italiano Intermediate excellent, but for me it is pretty challenging, having previously only done an elementary course.  I tend to read the text first, checking any difficult vocabulary, then listen to the audio, then listen again following the text, and finally try to read the text out loud whilst listening and trying to keep pace with the audio.

The fascinating topics on various aspects of life in Italy are an incentive to keep going and the video clips add interest.  It is well structured and the exercises with solutions at the end of each Newsletter are very helpful.  The ability to download both text and audio makes it easy to study away from a pc with printed-out text and an MP3 player and encourages me to study almost daily.

I have only been a subscriber for just over a month and am confident that after one year my Italian will have greatly improved.  Highly recommended course." - C Macdonald Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

I love Incontro Italiano, how can I help to promote the audio-magazine?

There are several ways you can help:

• You can write a testimonial that we can publish on our site. Please tell us how you use Incontro Italiano and how it helps you to improve your Italian. Let us know how you want your name and location to be included. We will never publish your email address. If you want you can also send us an mp3 audio file or include a photo of yourself. Some testimonials we have received are on this page.
• You can write a review of our podcast in iTunes, this helps the Incontro Italiano podcast to be promoted in Itunes so more people will be able to find it.
• You can tell your Italian language teacher about Incontro Italiano. We also have a program for teachers and schools to use Incontro Italiano. Ask you Italian teacher to contact us.
• You can mention Incontro Italiano on forums and blogs or link to us on your website. Here are some examples of the html code you can use: