Learn Italian: Vanno in Francia, a Parigi. - They are going to France, to Paris.

In Italian, the preposition you use for a destination depends on the type of place. You must use in for countries, regions, and continents (like in Francia or in Italia). You must use a for cities and towns (like a Parigi or a Roma).

Wait, don't in and a mean 'in' or 'at'? How do they mean 'to' here?

You are exactly right! In Italian, you use the exact same prepositions for going to a place as you do for being located in that place. Because vanno means 'they go', we know from the context that they are moving to France and Paris. If the sentence was Vivono in Francia, a Parigi (They live in France, in Paris), the prepositions would stay exactly the same.

How do we know it means 'They are going' if the word loro (they) isn't in the sentence?

Italian verbs change their spellings depending on who is doing the action. Vanno is the 'they' form of the irregular verb andare (to go). Because the verb form already tells us the subject is 'they', Italian usually drops the word loro completely.

I've seen France written as la Francia. Why is the la missing here?