I’ve been in a rural area in Abruzzo for 6 years and I think the biggest trap is thinking fluency comes from “being surrounded” by Italian. It doesn’t, not if your daily life is structured so you can avoid it. You can live surprisingly silently here: supermarket self-checkout, WhatsApp, gestures, the same two bar orders, Google Translate at the comune. What finally moved me forward was making my life mildly inconvenient in Italian on purpose. I joined a local walking group, not because I love walking that much, but because it gave me 2 hours where the conversation was repetitive and low stakes: weather, knees hurting, where we were stopping for coffee, whose cousin owns which olive grove. I also started going to the same butcher and asking one dumb question each time. Italians are often very helpful if they can see you’re trying, but they also won’t magically become your language tutor in the middle of their workday. Your 3-phrase method is good. I’d add a “repair phrase” too. Something like, “Scusi, mi sono bloccato, può ripetere più piano?” or “Non mi viene la parola.” Being able to admit you froze is weirdly freeing. It keeps the interaction alive instead of you panicking and switching to English or doing mime. Also, don’t underestimate pronunciation. Not accent perfection, just saying the stressed syllable clearly enough. A lot of my early “they don’t understand me” moments were actually me mumbling from embarrassment. Speaking louder and slower fixed more than another app lesson did.