This episode’s audio doesn’t exist, and we have technology to blame (poof! gone into cyberspace!). Instead of listening to this episode, feel free to use the notes below to learn more about the topic. And if you’re like, “CHER, NO. I NEED THIS EPISODE,” then let me know in the comments below. I’ll put it on my list to record again!

Rick Zullo escaped to Italy and simultaneously fell in love with the city of Rome and an Italian lady.

What’s amazing about his site, RickZullo.com, is that he writes a mixture of Italian culture, language, and travel without sugarcoating it.

He’s real, honest, and funny.

You’re going to love this episode because you’ll learn:

— The exact process of how he got his one-year visa for Italy and other options for getting visas

— How to teach English and work in Italy as a teacher

— How he met his wife and dealt with some cultural translation barriers

— Main methods for learning grammar [and why avoiding the passato remoto came back to bite him in the butt]

— Which methods he didn’t find particularly helpful

— His experience working as a teacher in Rome [unique to the stories you usually hear]

Resources Mentioned:

— http://vitabellatravel.com – Where you can find the Sicily tours

— Getting a Visa

— Teaching English in Rome

— Italy Restaurant Guide [Download]

— Italian Style Guide [Download]

My favorite articles from Rick Zullo

— How to Cook Pasta

— Italian Dialects

— How to Dress Like an Italian

Get to know Rick

Site: http://rickzullo.com/

Twitter: RickZullo1

Facebook: Ricks Rome

Have an extra ten seconds? Say hi to me and Rick on Twitter by pressing the click to tweet below!

Just listened to the @rickzullo1 interview. Grazie for the brilliant #langlearning tips!

Want some ridiculously helpful support when learning Italian? Use Italki.

Italki is an online community of language learners and teachers to help you take whatever foreign language you’re learning to the next level.

What’s cool about it is that you can learn directly from home via Skype on your own schedule and skip the traditional school curriculum – which I love because I’ve always been a rebel.

It’s totally affordable, too. I spend $10 an hour with my tutor Giulia – a native speaker – for each 45-minute session, and the lessons are based on what I want to learn, which helps me retain information because I’m genuinely interested.

This style also encourages me to take note of the areas I need to strengthen throughout the week when I watch Italian movies, read books or newspapers, and talk to friends from Italy.

Signing up with Italki is completely free, and you can use the site to find language partners for free until you feel ready to hire an informal or professional teacher

Go to Italki and start tackling those problem areas you’ve been dealing with alone, like those pesky prepositions, the endlessly confusing sentence structure, and that subjunctive tense that’s been driving you crazy.

Visit Italki now and sign up for a free account.