Upper-intermediate stories
Original Italian stories written for this level, with comprehension questions.
Short stories
16 original stories written for this level, each with a comprehension check.
La traduttrice
A court interpreter in Bolzano realises, halfway through a trial, that the words she is translating could ruin an innocent man.
Il silenzio del notaio
In Siena, an elderly notary reads a will that shocks a wealthy family, and keeps a secret that only he and the dead woman knew.
Il ristorante vuoto
During a long winter of empty tables, a trattoria owner in Rome's Testaccio district finds a new reason to keep the kitchen open.
Il custode dei mosaici
In Ravenna, a weary museum guard is asked by a blind visitor to describe the golden mosaics of San Vitale, and sees them properly for the first time in decades.
Il punteggio
In a Turin insurance company, a new software scores every employee's productivity, and the lowest score belongs to the person everyone relies on.
La padrona di casa
A student from Bergamo rents a room in Bari from a strict eighty-year-old widow, and their year together turns out very differently from how it began.
Il campione di briscola
In a village bar near Nuoro, an unbeaten old card player faces a challenger nobody expected: his granddaughter, who learned the game online.
La casa al mare
Three siblings meet in their late parents' summer house on the Ligurian coast to decide whether to sell it, and none of them says what they really want.
Il primo giorno di pensione
In Ancona, a port crane operator who has never missed a day of work wakes up on the first morning of his retirement with nothing to do.
La voce
In Rome, a dubbing actor who has given his voice to a Hollywood star for twenty years is replaced, and has to find out who he is without it.
L'ascensore
Two neighbours in a Milan apartment block, who have been fighting for years through the residents' association, get stuck together in the lift.
Il cantiere dei frammenti
After the 1997 earthquake in Assisi, a young restorer spends years fitting together thousands of fragments of a fresco, and one piece changes her life.
Il figlio del farmacista
In a Calabrian hill town, the pharmacist's son comes home from Milan to sell the family pharmacy, and discovers what it really sells.
Cena con lo sconosciuto
In Bologna, a widowed woman reserves a table for two every Friday at the same trattoria, and one evening a stranger asks if the empty chair is free.
Lo chef e la nonna
A Michelin-starred chef from Parma is challenged on live television to cook a simple dish against an eighty-year-old grandmother, and loses.
L'ultima edizione
In Udine, the editor of a small local newspaper prepares its very last issue, and has to decide what goes on the final front page.
Nonfiction
24 original articles: explainers, news-style pieces, columns and workplace texts, each with a comprehension check.
Elogio del treno regionale
A columnist argues that the slow regional train, with its delays and strangers, teaches us more about Italy than any high-speed line.
Opinion column
I custodi dei paesi vuoti
A report from a mountain village in Molise where the population has fallen from two thousand to ninety, and from the few people who chose to stay.
Reportage
Cinque Terre a novembre
A traveller visits the famous Ligurian villages out of season, when the crowds have gone and the coast shows another face.
Travel writing
Il bar sotto casa
A columnist defends the humble neighbourhood bar as Italy's last true public square, and worries about its slow disappearance.
Opinion column
Venezia e l'acqua alta
A report on how Venetians live with high water, and on the mobile barriers that now protect the city, at a price.
Reportage
La Transiberiana d'Italia
A winter journey on a historic train through the snowy highlands of Abruzzo and Molise, on a line saved from abandonment.
Travel writing
In difesa del dialetto
A columnist who was punished at school for speaking dialect argues that Italy's local languages are a treasure, not a sign of ignorance.
Opinion column
La notte del mercato
A night spent at Milan's wholesale fruit and vegetable market, where the city's food arrives while everyone else is asleep.
Reportage
Palermo, istruzioni per perdersi
A traveller's advice for visiting Palermo: throw away the map, follow your nose and let the city's many layers find you.
Travel writing
Le mani che parlano
A columnist reflects on Italian hand gestures: a joke for foreigners, a source of embarrassment for some Italians, and a language worth taking seriously.
Opinion column
La biblioteca su tre ruote
In the hills of Basilicata, a retired schoolteacher drives a small three-wheeled van full of books to villages that have no library.
Reportage
Lungo il Po in bicicletta
A week cycling along the banks of Italy's longest river, from the plains of Lombardy to the delta, through fog, villages and flat silence.
Travel writing
Il mito del posto fisso
A columnist looks at the Italian dream of the permanent job, why her parents' generation loved it, and why her children's generation may not.
Opinion column
I maestri del corallo
A report from Torre del Greco, near Naples, where the ancient craft of coral and cameo carving is passed down in small workshops.
Reportage
Civita, la città che muore
A visit to Civita di Bagnoregio, the tiny village on a crumbling hill in northern Lazio, reached only by a long footbridge.
Travel writing
Elogio del pranzo della domenica
A columnist defends the long, noisy Italian Sunday lunch against busy schedules, diets and the temptation to skip it.
Opinion column
La scuola più piccola
A report from a primary school in an Alpine valley where seven children of different ages share one classroom and one teacher.
Reportage
Il lago d'Orta
A quiet weekend on the small lake in Piedmont that most travellers miss, with an island of silence in the middle.
Travel writing
Il calcio che ci divide
A columnist who doesn't like football reflects on why, in Italy, it still matters so much, even to people who never watch it.
Opinion column
La città in affitto
A report from the historic centre of Florence, where short-term holiday rentals are pushing out the last residents.
Reportage
La Sicilia barocca
A journey through Noto, Modica and Ragusa, the golden towns of south-eastern Sicily rebuilt after the great earthquake of 1693.
Travel writing
Imparare l'italiano da adulti
An Italian teacher of adult learners explains what her students teach her about her own language, and why mistakes deserve more respect.
Opinion column
Italiani senza cittadinanza
Young people born and raised in Italy to foreign parents talk about growing up Italian in everything but their documents.
Reportage
Sulla via Francigena
Five days on foot along the ancient pilgrims' road through southern Tuscany, from Siena to the edge of Lazio.
Travel writing