This is one of the most important phrases you’ll need to know before coming to Italy. It means ‘ok’ or ‘alright’, and you’re going to hear it every 5 seconds.Va bene literally translates as ‘goes well’ and, if things are going well, you’d use it in response to the question come va?(how’s it going?)
Just like ‘OK’ you can use it to show that you understand what’s going on.il museo è stato chiuso un’ora fa (The museum closed an hour ago), Va bene, non fa niente (Ok, nevermind)
But there are plenty of situations where you might use it. If you can imagine all the different contexts and intonations in which we could use the word ‘alright’ in English, then va bene is the Italian equivalen.You’ll probably also hear it being shortened to “vabbè’. It can be just a shorter form of the same phrase. But in some contexts, it means “whatever”.