On the polite use of English

When it is appropriate to use English when traveling in Italy and how to do so without insulting your hosts

The old joke goes that if you speak three languages, you're trilingual; if you speak two, you're bilingual; and if you only speak one language, well, then you must be an American.

TIP
Sometimes English isn't enough. Most train schedules and signs use the Italian names for cities. Here's a list (along with, for convenience, the name of the main train station so you don't accidentally get off in the suburbs)

Rome = Roma Termini
Florence = Firenze Santa Maria Novella
Venice = Venezia Santa Lucia
Milan = Milano Centrale
Genoa = Genova Porta Principe
Naples = Napoli Centrale
Leghorn = Livorno
Turin = Torino Porta Nuova

Americans are notorious for barging through Europe demanding, loudly, that everyone speak English.

These rude rubes seem to think that the proper way to ask after the toilet facilities in Italian (or French, or Spanish, or German, or Urdu) is to shout "WHERE... IS... THE... BATH... ROOM!"

(Actually: Dov'é il bagno? [DOH-vay eel BAHN-yo])

Use any Italian you have memorized, no matter how little

When you're in Italy (or any foreign country) never assume that the people there will—or expect that they should—speak English.

Nothing is more arrogant.

You are their guest; use their language

Prove the stereotypes wrong by learning the basics of the local lingo before you arrive in town and by being eager to pick up more from anyone who will teach you along the way.

At the very least you can memorize the native ways to say "yes," "no," "please," and "thank you." (For the record: si, no, per favore, and grazie.) Not only is this polite, but it'll tend to get you better service as well.

Still, on occasion, resorting to English is the best way to get your message across clearly, especially if you're just starting out on learning Italian.

Just be polite about it, and always ask first "Do you speak English?"—preferably in Italian: parla inglese? (PAHR-lah een-GLAY-zay?).

Most will reply "Yes, a leettle English," and then prove to be surprisingly fluent.

Chances are they will speak it very well indeed; most Italians under the age of 40 learned some English in school.

How to speak English to a foreigner

When speaking English to an Italian —or to anyone who is being kind enough to converse with you in your native language and not theirs—follow these tips:

Speak slowly.
Enunciate clearly.
Use short, simple sentences.
Choose only simple, direct words.
Do not use extra words.
Do not use contractions.
Avoid idiomatic expressions or strange turns of phrase that don’t translate literally.

Remember, folks working in the tourism industry will know at least the words and phrases they need to do their jobs—all those Berlitz phrases and words for booking hotel rooms, describing what's in dishes, purchasing train tickets, rattling off open hours and admission prices, etc.

What's more, they can probably handle these conversations not just in English but also French, Spanish, German, and Japanese with a few phrases in Mandarin and Arabic as well.

I don’t know about you, but that impresses the heck out of me, and I try to respect their talents by showing them I've at least mastered the basics in their tongue as well.

This phrase sheet will help.