Hi Rachelyeo,
It depends on the noun itself:
You say a scuola, al museo, al centro commerciale and al cinema, but you also say in ospedale, in edicola, in tabaccheria and in banca. Both a and in can be used to translate the English at/in. A is more common for places (where? to where?), but some cases, like those that use in, are unpredictable. In some cases both prepositions are possible, but one is more used than the other (in tabaccheria is used 3 times as much as alla tabaccheria, for example). Be sure to learn the most common prepositions for each noun!
Lucia
It depends on the noun itself:
You say a scuola, al museo, al centro commerciale and al cinema, but you also say in ospedale, in edicola, in tabaccheria and in banca. Both a and in can be used to translate the English at/in. A is more common for places (where? to where?), but some cases, like those that use in, are unpredictable. In some cases both prepositions are possible, but one is more used than the other (in tabaccheria is used 3 times as much as alla tabaccheria, for example). Be sure to learn the most common prepositions for each noun!
Lucia