Hi Sean,
In italian as in English we have direct pronouns, which come before or soon after a transitive verb that doesn't have the prepositon A, for example "mangiare":
1. L'ho (la ho) mangiata= ho mangiato la pizza.
2. Mangiala (mangia la pizza). The direct pronoun comes after the verb when you have an imperative, an infinite verb (mangiare), gerundio (mangiando) o two verbs ( vieni a mangiarla).
3. The direct pronouns are: mi (me), ti (you), ci (us), vi (you), lo (him but also masculine object), la (her but also feminine object) , li and le are the plural of lo and la.
4. Indirect pronouns usually go before a verb with the prepisition A (piacere a, parlare a, dire a): mi - a me, ti - a te, ci - a noi, vi - a voi, gli - a lui/a loro, le - a lei.
For example: ti va di andare al cinema? (Do you fancy going to the cinema?)
They go after the verb when it is an imperative, gerundio or infinitive.
For example : "scrivimi".
5. In Italian sometimes we join the indirect and direct pronouns and we have "pronomi combinati": me lo, me la, me li, ecc..
They can come before and after the verb when we have imperative, infinite and gerund.