Italian conversation practice, scene by scene
Updated 2026-10-18
Good conversation practice puts you in a situation you will meet, at your level, with someone who answers back. Here are the Italian scenes in the Convola app from A1 to C2, how the number of people changes the talk, and opening lines to try.
What makes practice a conversation
A drill asks you to repeat a sentence. A conversation asks you to choose one. The other person says something you did not expect, and you answer with the Italian you have.
Three things make that work: a place you can picture, a goal you can reach, and a level where most of what you hear makes sense. Without a goal, the talk drifts. At the wrong level, you either coast or stall.
The scenes by level
The Italian app has more than a hundred scene types. Each is set in Italian life, and each has one, two or three people besides you.
| Level | Examples |
|---|---|
| A1 | A gelato with two flavours; a slice of pizza al taglio; introducing yourself at a language exchange in a bar |
| A2 | A dentist appointment; a ferry to an island with a chatty deckhand; renting an ombrellone from the bagnino |
| B1 | Haggling at a flea market; Sunday lunch at a friend's family; a riunione di condominio about the stairwell |
| B2 | A first day at a new office; contesting a parking fine at the comune; a book club discussing a novel |
| C1 | A performance review with your manager; a public meeting about a new ZTL; a philosophy café evening |
| C2 | A live talk-show debate on overtourism in Venice; a wedding toast with friends heckling; a Neapolitan grandmother who talks in proverbs |
You pick the level you start at. After that it moves on its own as you practise, separately for reading, listening, writing and speaking. When you have used up the scene types at your level, the range widens to the next one.
One, two or three people
How many people take part is part of the scene. Alone with a shop assistant, you lead. On a beach with two friends, they also talk to each other, and you have to find a gap to get in.
- One person: buying shoes with a pushy shop assistant. You say no politely, more than once.
- Two people: a shared taxi with strangers. Two strangers in one car, and talk you did not plan for.
- Three people: a village sagra with a local family. Questions come from three sides, and nobody waits for you to finish.
The people answer like people do. They joke, interrupt and ask back. They never explain grammar; that is the tutor's job, in English, beside the conversation.
Opening lines to try
The openings below were written for this page in the app's format. They are examples, not recordings. At A1, ordering a gelato with two flavours, a scene could start like this:
- Gelataio
- Ciao. Cono o coppetta?Hi. Cone or cup?
- Gelataio
- E quali gusti?And which flavours?
At B1, haggling at a flea market, the seller sets the tone and the price:
- Venditore
- Questa lampada? È degli anni Sessanta, signora. Non la trova da nessuna parte.This lamp? It's from the sixties, madam. You won't find another anywhere.
At C1, at a public meeting at the comune about a new ZTL, a zona a traffico limitato that keeps most cars out of the centre, you are one voice among three:
- Assessore
- La zona a traffico limitato partirà a marzo. Ci sono domande?The limited traffic zone will start in March. Any questions?
- Commerciante
- E i nostri negozi? Chi verrà ancora in centro?And our shops? Who will still come into the centre?
Tu or Lei
Each scene also sets how formal you are. Italian has two ways to say "you": tu with friends and children, Lei with strangers, older people and clients. With Lei the verb takes the third-person form: Come sta?, not Come stai?
The scene shows you which one fits. The flea-market seller calls you signora, so you answer with Lei. Friends at a beach bar say tu from the first line. Mixing the two is one of the topics the tutor files mistakes under, as "tu vs Lei".
After the conversation
Each line you say can carry up to three notes from the tutor: the wrong form, the right one, and a short note in English. A note like this one, written here as an example, is what you might see at the flea market:
Quanto costa? Mi fai uno sconto?
Quanto costa? Mi fa uno sconto?
The seller speaks to you as Lei, so the verb takes the third person: fa, not fai.
The notes go into your list of issues and come back in short prompts and grammar cards, spaced so they stick. For more on what the tutor notes and where it can be wrong, see the AI tutor guide. For simpler first scenes, see conversation for beginners, or browse all Italian guides.