Elementary stories
Original Italian stories written for this level, with comprehension questions.
Short stories
20 original stories written for this level, each with a comprehension check.
Il portafoglio sul tram
Valentina loses her wallet on a Rome tram. Getting it back takes a whole day and a lot of help.
Le estati dai nonni
Now a teacher in Turin, Antonio remembers the long summers of his childhood in a small village in Calabria.
Matricola a Padova
Caterina's first week at the University of Padua: a room to share, a lecture hall to find, and a famous old staircase.
La torta salata
In Parma, Davide wants to bake his girlfriend's mother a cake. One small mistake changes everything.
La maratona di Firenze
Fifty-year-old Daniela decides to run her first marathon in Florence. At kilometre thirty, she wants to give up.
Il trasloco
Moving from Milan to Turin should take one day. For Paolo and his three friends, it takes rather longer.
Bloccati dalla neve
A couple driving through the mountains of Abruzzo is stopped by a snowstorm and taken in by a village.
Lo scambio linguistico
In Bologna, an Italian student and an American student meet every week to practise each other's language. They don't always understand each other.
Il negozio di dischi
In an alley in Genoa, an old record shop is about to close for ever. A teenager with a school project changes its story.
In Vespa fino al mare
Two friends from Rome ride an old Vespa to the sea at Sperlonga. Halfway there, it stops in a village where nobody is in a hurry.
La gita a Pompei
On a school trip to Pompeii, a boy who never listens in history class gets separated from his group among the ruins.
In cima all'Etna
Three friends from Catania climb Mount Etna at dawn. The volcano has a surprise for them.
Il mistero del quarto piano
In Trieste, strange noises come every night from the flat upstairs. Irene decides to find out what's going on.
La maschera sbagliata
At the Venice Carnival, two friends in identical masks get mixed up in the crowd, with unexpected results.
L'esame di guida
In Naples, Ciro takes his driving test for the third time. The examiner is strict and the traffic is, well, Neapolitan.
Il cane ritrovato
On Lake Como, a little dog goes missing during a storm. Three days later, a phone call comes from the other side of the lake.
Il treno in ritardo
At Verona station, a train is two hours late. Two strangers waiting on the platform start talking.
La vendemmia
A software engineer from Milan spends a week picking grapes in the Langhe hills of Piedmont. It's harder than he thought.
Il pappagallo del signor Nicola
In Bari's old town, a family agrees to look after a neighbour's parrot for a week. The parrot knows far too many words.
La lettera mai spedita
While renovating an old house in Ortigia, the island at the heart of Syracuse, a young couple finds a love letter from 1962 hidden in a wall.