By jesicaversichele Last updated: January 12, 2023

10 Advanced Italian Lessons Online (C1 and C2) to Elevate Your Language Skills

Whether you’re trying to get fit or get full will influence your choice at the salad bar.

You should likewise pick and choose resources that best fit you and your Italian learning goals.

At this point in your studies, as an advanced Italian learner you probably know what you need, what you like and what you can do without.

Maybe you’ve even made it here through self-directed study and you deserve some credit. It’s been tough.

But let’s hold off on the celebration for a bit; you haven’t reached the summit of Vesuvio yet!

Even at an advanced stage of language learning, there’s still some work to do to get you through the C1 and C2 levels and on to true fluency.

We’ve got some resources for advanced Italian lessons online that are just right for your level and ability. They’re sure to give you a balanced learning experience and help you reach the top.

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What to Look for in Online Advanced Italian Lessons

It takes a lot of motivation to study on your own. That’s a given.

But there are ways to make learning more enjoyable for yourself. Before committing to a resource, check and see if it has the following components:

• The coursework should be challenging and encourage critical thinking in Italian.
• Audio should be at native or near native speed.
• Lessons should test your comprehension by asking questions about the text and audio.
• Content should be engaging, fun, authentic and varied.

If a lesson has these elements in place, then you’re much more likely to have a fantastic time learning advanced Italian online.

10 Advanced Italian Lessons Online (C1 and C2) to Elevate Your Language Skills

Advanced Italian Listening Lessons Online

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could just go to an Italian café for lunch and listen to people’s conversations?

While this may not be in everyone’s budget, anyone can hop online and find some great Italian language resources that advanced learners like you can listen to.

Italy Made Easy

The host of Italy Made Easy is Manu, a native Italian speaker. In this video series, he conducts interviews with other native Italian speakers on a range of topics—from work to food to all kinds of fun stuff.

Each lesson is comprised of two parts: the interview itself and a commentary portion in English about the interview.

Manu discusses new vocabulary, as well as some grammatical and cultural aspects of the interview.

What’s great about these lessons is that they occur at native speed. Interviewees come from all over Italy, so the learner is exposed to a range of accents. They also don’t shy away from using slang.

There’s really no way to get any closer to the way real Italians speak unless you go to Italy yourself.

FluentU

FluentU provides the user with much more than just listening practice.

FluentU is an immersive program that creates lessons for learners through authentic Italian videos. 

There are interactive, translated captions—just hover over any word to see its definition, an associated image and other videos in which it appears. Keep track of unknown words with personalized vocabulary lists, flashcards and quizzes that adapt based on what you already know.

Videos are conveniently organized into lessons and sortable by difficulty, so you can work toward a particular objective, topic or skill that’s at the level you need it to be.

FluentU also allows you to keep the targeted learning going using topics you find interesting.

ItalianPod101

Apart from offering users a slough of resources with a paid membership, ItalianPod101 has a free YouTube channel full of quick and challenging listening comprehension exercises.

The narrator asks a multiple choice question, then you listen to the dialogue—first without and then with Italian subtitles.

As you listen the second time, choices are eliminated based on evidence given during the dialogue, leaving only the correct answer.

These exercises are each about five minutes long and are great if you only have a short time to study.

Advanced Italian Grammar and Vocabulary Lessons and Resources

At the advanced level, you’re getting into the real nitty-gritty of Italian grammar. While a good textbook is always great to have as a guide, sometimes you just want a little variety.

That’s where online lessons really shine. Try the ones below!

Online Italian Club

Online Italian Club is a great resource for grammar topics you’re having trouble with.

The website offers material for each of the six levels of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (A1-C2). You can also pick and choose the topics you’d like to focus on, so go ahead and go straight to the vocabulary and grammar section!

If you’d like to get confirmation about your current level, Online Italian Club also gives you the opportunity to double-check it with an online level test.

This website provides a thorough approach to Italian studies, but gives you the flexibility you need to focus on the components of language you need the most. Just look up any topic you could use some help with and you’ll have a full lesson ready for you.

Cyber Italian

Cyber Italian is an all-around excellent resource for learning Italian. Each of their 20 advanced lessons is jam-packed with audio, culture information, exercises and quizzes.

Grammar and vocabulary are taught by first listening to a dialogue. You’ll see the transcript on one side of the screen and the verbs you’ll encounter (plus their meanings) on the other side.

In the grammar section of each lesson, several grammatical forms are explained and given more context. Each lesson ends with a quiz to test your knowledge.

And if 20 lessons aren’t enough, they have recipes, songs, book excerpts and games to expand your Italian knowledge.

IE Languages

IE Languages is more of a reference resource than a place to find lessons, per-se. Click on any topic to see a thorough explanation of it, complete with examples, charts and audio recordings.

In addition to nearly three hours of audio files, their tutorials come in a handy e-book format with 180 pages of grammar and vocabulary topics. (You can download the first 10 pages for free to see if it’s right for you.)

And if you prefer your lessons on the go, this resource is perfect for those who don’t want to carry around heavy textbooks since it allows you to load everything onto your tablet, e-reader or smartphone.

Advanced Speaking and Writing Italian Lessons

In the classroom, students taking an advanced Italian course are encouraged to start expressing their opinions on films, literature and current events through conversation, presentations and essay writing.

The language instructor at this point becomes more of a guide and a coach instead of just a “giver of tests and explanations.”

One of the main drawbacks of online instruction is that you can’t receive this sort of guidance without seeking an online tutor. Luckily, there are sites that make this process fun and easy.

italki

Italki is a service that matches up native speaking teachers with language learners.

Browse the dozens of profiles of Italian language teachers, watch their video introductions and see reviews from past students.

Once you’ve chosen the one you want to work with, contact them and agree on an hourly rate. Prices are affordable and generally range from $6 to $30, so you can pick someone who easily fits into your budget and can provide the guidance you need.

From there the lessons are customized to fit your individual needs. If you need to work on grammar, they can help. If you want to know if you’re using those idioms correctly, they can give you feedback on that, too.

Lessons are flexible and work around your schedule. 

Verbling

Verbling operates on a similar premise as italki, since you can select a teacher for private lessons.

However, with Verbling, you buy blocks of lessons on a particular topic. You then select a block of time for the instructor to go through the lessons with you from a calendar of availability.

Whether it’s exam preparation or advanced grammar, this is a very cost-effective way to get face-to-face (or screen-to-screen) instruction.

The real advantage of sites like these is that you receive guidance, motivation and feedback from the instructors. If you’re only learning online, then paying for an opportunity like this is a necessary investment.

Online Advanced Italian Reading Lessons and Resources

At the advanced level, you have a lot of options for improving your reading comprehension: You can read Italian e-books for free on Project Gutenberg or purchase contemporary Italian literature through Mondadoristore.it with their e-reader app.

But here are a couple of other resources that are worth checking out.

“Italy Magazine”

We know you love to read for fun, but sometimes it’s good to see how much of a text you comprehend.

“Italy Magazine” provides free advanced-level texts to read and then tests your understanding with a series of questions. Correct answers are revealed by clicking on the question.

This is a great source for news about Italian culture and current events. You can also find dual-language articles here to further improve your reading skills.

Liber Liber

Liber Liber is a website dedicated to Italian literature. While it doesn’t necessarily offer lessons, it’s still a wonderful resource for improving your Italian reading and listening comprehension.

This site offers a selection of free e-books and audio books that allow you to download both files—giving you the opportunity to read the text while listening to the narrator.

These books are all classics of Italian literature and reading and listening to them simultaneously can make the language a little less overwhelming.

Plus, there’s the added bonus of knowing that words are pronounced correctly! To perfect your own pronunciation, go back and read a portion of the text along with the narrator.

Through a combination of these resources, you’ll reach an advanced level of fluency comparable to what you’d get in the traditional language classroom.

But with the flexibility and budget-friendly prices of these advanced online lessons, you’ll certainly have more time and money to live la dolce vita!

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)