:D I've discovered that pure audio learning doesn't work very well for me - in the audio tape I've got right now, a vocabulary word doesn't make it into the metnal database until I can see how it's spelled in my mind - "il ventilatore" for "fan" was incomprehensible until I lookied it up and made the "ventilator" connection.

I got a reader for beginning Italian students, and have managed to bull my way through the first four selections, which feels good. :D I didn't even need the dictionary for the first section (not so for the next three, though).