Learn Italian: Il tuo viaggio inizia oggi? - Does your trip begin today?

In English, we just say 'your trip'. But in Italian, possessive words like tuo (your) almost always need a definite article like il (the) in front of them. The main exception is when you are talking about a singular family member, like mio padre (my father).

Since the current lesson is about -ire verbs, is inizia one of them?

Actually, no! Even though it has an 'i' near the end, inizia comes from the regular -are verb iniziare (to begin). Because il viaggio is an 'it' (third person singular), it takes the regular -a ending for -are verbs.

How do we know this is a question if the word order doesn't change?

In Italian, you don't need helper words like 'does' or 'do' to ask a question, and you don't have to flip the subject and the verb. You just use the exact same word order as a normal statement, but make your voice go up at the end when speaking.

Why is there an 'i' in viaggio if we don't really hear it?

The i in viaggio is silent, but it has a very important job. It tells you to pronounce the double g with a soft sound, like the 'j' in the English word 'jump'. Without the i, a g followed by an o would make a hard sound, like in the word 'go'.