I first bought this dictionary in 1990 for a college course. It was well worth the money. So, I decided to buy a newer version since mine was old and frayed. Upon inspection, I noticed that my old dictionary and this "new" dictionary were identical page-for-page. Bottom-line: only buy this book if (a) you don't already have a copy or (b) your copy is falling apart. Otherwise, buy another dictionary.

The best paperback Italian-English Dictionary I've seen. Actually can compete with several of the high-cost hardbounds. A great buy for the money.

By now I speak Italian well enough to be called, by Italians, fluent, and in fact I've given a few lectures in Italian. I say that only to suggest that I've been around the block with Italian/English dictionaries and far and away this one has served me best. Only very rarely does it fail me and not have a necessary word or idiom, but otherwise this packed pocketbook is almost mystic in its sense of what American students of Italian need. First-rate: you need to spend a hundred bucks to do better, and how often do you want to lug down, or out, a book that size

My Bantam English Italian Dictionary is several years old now, and the perfect binding is beginning to fail. I ordered this book, also by Robert Melzi, in the expectation I would get better quality by paying about five times the price. Wrong. Typograpy is poor and the paper is awful. Avoid it.

There are about 5 different Italian-English dictionaries at my house as I am always cross-checking definitions. I want to make sure that the definition makes sense when viewed in the context within which the word is used. That is where this particular dictionary comes out on top. I rate it so high because it does the job of meaningful translation so well.