Learn Italian with Netflix

How can you level up your Italian while staying on the couch? Well… by watching TV series!

We all know that if you get hooked on a tv series you start to binge watch it like crazy right?

Well if you do it with an Italian show in Italian it can actually become a learning experience! In this way you can improve your listening skills, expand your vocabulary and if you watch an Italian made original TV show you are also understating real life Italian culture, dialects, food, landscapes. How can this be done?

Well you can’t just simply become a couch potato and hope for the words to magically flow in your brain… sorry… this doesn’t work!

Watching TV needs to become a pleasant homework assignment… which means that you don’t only stop the video to pick-up new words but you try to analyze them in the context. As I always suggest take note of the new word and try to put it in a sentence or take note of the entire sentence and analyze its meaning. In this way it will be a lot easier to reuse that word in future conversations.  

If you are a super beginner and you don’t want to jump into a 100% Italian TV series you can also REWATCH in Italian a TV series in your mother tongue language!

Italians are know to be great at dubbing! This could be a nice exercise because since you have already watched the TV series your brain doesn’t need to stress out on understanding the story and you can focus on the language!

For example you can watch Friends, Stranger Things, Grace and Frankie, Lost or any kind of tv show that you have loved in the past! As far as subtitles are concerned, give your brain a break!!!

If you watch in Italian but Italian subtitles otherwise it will be twice as difficult for your brain to listen in one language and read in another one!

I will list some TV shows but also some interesting movies that are worth watching in Italian.

You can find them on Netflix.

7 Great Italian TV shows and films on Netflix to learn Italian

1. Odio L'estate

This is a movie with three extremely famous Italian comedians and actors. It talks about three families that accidentally book the same beach house for the summer holidays. You will get to know the three different families with their different backgrounds and personalities. You will see beautiful sea side locations and also listen to real Italian music!

2. L’incredibile storia dell’isola delle rose.

This is a true story! I particularly liked this movie because it talks about something that really happened in Italy in Rimini a very famous beach location. An Italian engineer decides to create its own island off the Italian coast. He wants to create his own country with its laws and flag and currency. This creates a lot of problems especially to the Italian government.

3. Incastrati (TV Series)

This is an Italian tv series with two very popular Italian comedians Ficarra e Picone. You will see the beautiful Sicily in this show.

The show talks about the misadventures of Valentino and Salvatore, two TV technicians who unfortunately happen to be on a crime scene. They haven't done anything wrong but since they have watched too many crime TV shows they fear that they will be considered responsible for the crime. To avoid being suspected, they clean up the scene and as you can imagine this will result in a series of misadventures. Very funny!

4. Blanca

Blanca is a wonderful Italian tv show that initially aired on the national TV Rai, but it is now available also on Netflix. The show takes place in Genoa and you really get to see some beautiful locations. Blanca is a young police consultant specialized in analyzing audio file for the police.

She became blind at a young age due to a tragic fire in which her older sister unfortunately passes away. I particolarly liked this show because it is not dull and you get to learn something extra on how visually impaired people are able to get around. The actress actually asked Andrea Bocelli’s help in order to best perform in this tv show. I strongly suggest it.

5. Suburra 

This is an extremely addictive TV show you will binge watch it! Trust me! The plot focuses on gangs whose interests in and around the Italian capital city of Rome. Their business is closely linked to corrupted politicians and the Vatican clergy.

The story has been inspired by real life events that happened with the trial called “Roma mafia capitale”. The characters use dialects so I strongly suggest to use subtitles here! I had to use them myself in a couple of cases!! Lots of drugs, violence and sex… just so you know!  

6. Generazione 56K

Generazione 56K is an Italian television series about Matilda and Daniele, who first meet when they were young and didn't have internet. They meet again in their thirties thanks to the internet. It talks about how dating and work has changed with the use of internet. This tv show has some popular funny actors and some of them use a strong Italian dialect from Naples.        

7. Carlo e Malik

This is an Italian tv show that originally aired on RAI. It’s the typical crime scene investigation type of tv series. It talks about a veteran detective from Rome who is teamed up with an Ivory-coast born officer.

Unfortunately the older detective has a lot of prejudice towards the abilities of this young man. There are a couple of love stories inside the series that will make you want to watch to understand the developments.

This tv series shows a controversial contemporary Italian topic of immigration.

Let me know which one sounds interesting and which one you will watch! Enjoy them and have fun learning Italian!

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