diff --git a/po/it.po b/po/it.po
index bee53109..318d23fe 100644
--- a/po/it.po
+++ b/po/it.po
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ msgstr ""
 "Last-Translator: FULL NAME <EMAIL@ADDRESS>\n"
 "Language-Team: LANGUAGE <LL@li.org>\n"
 "MIME-Version: 1.0\n"
-"Content-Type: text/plain; charset=CHARSET\n"
+"Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8\n"
 "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit\n"
 
 #: ../services/clipboard/typeregistry.py:29
diff --git a/shell/sugar-shell b/shell/sugar-shell
index 753fd67d..19bcbaea 100755
--- a/shell/sugar-shell
+++ b/shell/sugar-shell
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@
 import sys
 import os
 from ConfigParser import ConfigParser
+import gettext
 
 import pygtk
 pygtk.require('2.0')
@@ -64,8 +65,14 @@ def _save_session_info():
 
     f.close()
 
+def _setup_translations():
+    domain = 'sugar'
+    gettext.bindtextdomain(domain, env.get_locale_path())
+    gettext.textdomain(domain)
+
 _save_session_info()
 _start_matchbox()
+_setup_translations()
 
 # Do initial setup if needed
 key = profile.get_pubkey() 
diff --git a/sugar/env.py b/sugar/env.py
index ed4e72d5..00539b50 100644
--- a/sugar/env.py
+++ b/sugar/env.py
@@ -58,6 +58,9 @@ def get_user_activities_path():
 def get_bin_path(path=None):
     return _get_prefix_path('bin', path)
 
+def get_locale_path(path=None):
+    return _get_prefix_path('share/locale', path)
+
 def get_service_path(name):
     return _get_prefix_path('share/sugar/services', name)