lavengro wrote:Cavesa wrote: One of the biggest publishers of resources for Italian learners is Alma. They make various great grammar workbooks, and coursebooks.
https://www.almaedizioni.it/en/
Both of the two main providers of in-person Italian classes where I live use ALMA Edizioni's Nuovo Espresso course books for classes. They are better, secondo me, for use in instructor-led situations, but still pretty good for self-study as audio is available for a fair bit of the dialogues and other materials. Perhaps a little pricey in light of what is otherwise available for free online (like the excellent Italian Language and Culture beginner, intermediate and advanced courses materials (https://www.edx.org/learn/italian) available for free through EdX as mentioned in earlier posts, which presents explicit grammar instruction more systematically than in Nuovo Espresso).
ALMA Edizioni also has a collection of texts (short stories, etc.) with audio available which are really useful for learners, graded by level.
Alma also publishes grammar books. So, the Espresso is most probably not supposed to be that great for grammar, but supplemented by those. But Nuovo Espresso certainly comes with advantages over competitors, online supplements (audio that you don't have to copy from a stupid cd, wordlists sorted by unit, key to exercises). I'd say there are lots of advantages of this series even for a self teaching learner (and a non beginner doesn't need a bilingual coursebook).
Those grammar books are definitely worth a look.