Italian reading texts by level
57 texts from A1 to C2, 10 155 words in all, with 242 comprehension questions. Each text shows how much of it is explained in this site’s vocabulary — calculated, not claimed.
A1 (10)
A1 · 134 words · 1 min
StoryEveryday life
La prima mattina
A first day at work, from six o’clock to the first break.
A1 · 138 words · 1 min
StoryEveryday life
Il mercato del sabato
Shopping between eight and ten, with a mistake at the till.
A1 · 135 words · 1 min
StoryEveryday life
La casa vicino al lago
Viewing a flat on a September afternoon.
A1 · 109 words · 1 min
StoryTravel
Un giorno a Venezia
Marta is in Venice for the first time, gets lost among the bridges and finds help.
A1 · 91 words · 1 min
StoryFood and cooking
Il pranzo della domenica
On Sundays the Rossi family eat together. Today Dad is cooking — and every child wants the pasta a different way.
A1 · 88 words · 1 min
StoryEveryday life
Il cane del vicino
Luca takes his dog to the park every morning. One day the dog runs off to a new neighbour.
A1 · 63 words · 1 min
DialogueTravel
Alla reception
Mr Weber arrives at a small hotel in Rome.
A1 · 55 words · 1 min
DialogueFood and cooking
Al bar la mattina
Elena orders coffee and something sweet at the bar — and pays at the till.
A1 · 47 words · 1 min
MessageEveryday life
Un gelato questa sera?
Two friends arrange by chat to go out for ice cream.
A1 · 67 words · 1 min
EmailEveryday life
La mia nuova casa
Chiara writes to a friend about her new flat.
A2 (14)
A2 · 144 words · 1 min
StoryEveryday life
Il treno delle sette
A journey, a missed connection and a conversation on the platform.
A2 · 165 words · 1 min
StoryEveryday life
La lettera del vicino
A note in the letterbox, and an afternoon that turns out differently.
A2 · 134 words · 1 min
StoryEveryday life
La domenica al mare
A day trip that starts with rain and ends in sunshine.
A2 · 156 words · 1 min
StoryEveryday life
Il primo giorno in palestra
A resolution, a contract and the question of how long it lasts.
A2 · 128 words · 1 min
StoryEveryday life
Il guasto del riscaldamento
A cold flat, a phone call and a repairman who comes late.
A2 · 127 words · 1 min
StoryEveryday life
Una giornata in ufficio
From nine to six, with a printer that will not cooperate.
A2 · 124 words · 1 min
StoryEveryday life
Il corso di italiano
Eight months of a language course, and the day it works for the first time.
A2 · 151 words · 1 min
StoryTravel
Il traghetto per l’isola
Two friends take the ferry to an island — and a bag goes back on its own.
A2 · 149 words · 1 min
StoryFood and cooking
Il quaderno della nonna
Tommaso finds his grandmother’s recipe book and bakes her cake for the first time.
A2 · 161 words · 1 min
StoryEveryday life
Il primo giorno in ufficio
Davide starts a new job — and ends up in the wrong office.
A2 · 119 words · 1 min
DialogueTravel
Il treno è in ritardo
At the station: a train is late, the platform changes, and Mr Bauer needs help at the ticket desk.
A2 · 126 words · 1 min
DialogueFood and cooking
Che cosa ci consiglia?
Two friends order in a trattoria and ask the waiter for advice.
A2 · 94 words · 1 min
MessageEveryday life
Aiuto per il trasloco
Federico is moving and looks for friends in the chat to help carry things.
A2 · 105 words · 1 min
EmailEveryday life
Un favore per le vacanze
Before her holiday Anna emails her neighbour to ask him to water the plants.
B1 (12)
B1 · 192 words · 2 min
StoryEveryday life
Il colloquio
Forty minutes in a room with two chairs and one question.
B1 · 195 words · 2 min
StoryEveryday life
La lingua della nonna
Why a language disappears when nobody speaks it to a child any more.
B1 · 162 words · 1 min
StoryEveryday life
Il guasto in autostrada
A breakdown, a tow truck and a garage in a village.
B1 · 156 words · 1 min
StoryEveryday life
Il colloquio delle dieci
A job interview, from the door to the last question.
B1 · 150 words · 1 min
StoryEveryday life
Il riso della nonna
A recipe without a book, in five steps and with a test of patience.
B1 · 204 words · 2 min
StoryTravel
Il temporale in montagna
A trip to the Dolomites, an afternoon storm and a night in a mountain hut that nobody had planned.
B1 · 201 words · 2 min
StoryFood and cooking
La pasta fatta a mano
Marco signs up for a cookery course to surprise his girlfriend’s parents. His first home-made pasta turns out as hard as wood.
B1 · 196 words · 2 min
StoryEveryday life
La bicicletta rossa
Lucia’s bike is stolen. Weeks later she sees it again — outside a shop on the other side of town.
B1 · 140 words · 1 min
DialogueTravel
La macchina non parte
A hire car will not start at a motorway service area. A call to the breakdown service.
B1 · 149 words · 1 min
DialogueFood and cooking
Una cena per sei
A couple plan a dinner for guests, one of whom eats no meat and one no fish.
B1 · 120 words · 1 min
MessageEveryday life
Il regalo per la professoressa
A teacher is retiring. The class chat argues about the present.
B1 · 122 words · 1 min
EmailEveryday life
Disdetta della palestra
Because he is moving to another city, Andrea cancels his gym contract.
B2 (7)
B2 · 288 words · 2 min
StoryTravel
Il paese dei nonni
Sara travels for the first time to the village in Calabria that her grandparents emigrated from sixty years ago.
B2 · 241 words · 2 min
StoryFood and cooking
La trattoria di via Dante
An old trattoria is about to close. The cook’s daughter has a well-paid job — and an idea.
B2 · 214 words · 2 min
StoryEveryday life
Il giorno dello sciopero
A strike stops the buses and the underground. Three colleagues who hardly know each other travel to the office together.
B2 · 179 words · 1 min
DialogueTravel
All’ufficio oggetti smarriti
A suitcase has not arrived at the airport. At the lost luggage desk a form is filled in.
B2 · 185 words · 2 min
DialogueFood and cooking
Un tavolo per l’anniversario
A table is booked for a wedding anniversary — but nobody at the restaurant can find the booking.
B2 · 193 words · 2 min
MessageEveryday life
Un gatto in cortile
In a building’s chat: a strange cat is sitting in the courtyard — whose is it, and who will look after it?
B2 · 163 words · 1 min
EmailEveryday life
Candidatura per un tirocinio
A student applies by email for an internship at a city museum.
C1 (7)
C1 · 329 words · 3 min
StoryTravel
L’isola d’inverno
A woman spends a winter on a small island that has thousands of holidaymakers in summer — and almost nobody in January.
C1 · 300 words · 2 min
StoryFood and cooking
Il pane di notte
An old baker wants to stop. A young man from Senegal who cleans for him asks him to teach him the trade.
C1 · 310 words · 3 min
StoryEveryday life
La biblioteca di via Verdi
The city wants to close a small local library. Its readers get organised.
C1 · 210 words · 2 min
DialogueTravel
Una notte senza dormire
Building works kept a guest awake, and he negotiates compensation with the hotel management.
C1 · 253 words · 2 min
DialogueFood and cooking
Il menù della mensa
A mother, a father and the school canteen cook argue about healthier food — and about who pays for it.
C1 · 272 words · 2 min
MessageEveryday life
L’ascensore della discordia
A lift is to be put into an old building without one. In the residents’ chat the talk is of costs, fairness and an old lady on the fourth floor.
C1 · 213 words · 2 min
EmailEveryday life
Reclamo per i ritardi
A commuter makes a formal complaint to a rail company about weeks of delays — and asks for compensation.
C2 (7)
C2 · 353 words · 3 min
StoryTravel
Il custode della sala sette
For thirty years a museum attendant has watched people stand in front of a painting — or not stop at all.
C2 · 333 words · 3 min
StoryFood and cooking
La cena del cortile
Once a year everyone living round a courtyard eats together. Each family brings a dish from home — and a story.
C2 · 288 words · 2 min
StoryEveryday life
Un mese senza telefono
A woman puts her smartphone in a drawer for a month and describes what she loses — and what she finds again.
C2 · 232 words · 2 min
DialogueTravel
Perché camminiamo?
Two friends have been walking for a week, three hundred kilometres through hills and villages. In the evening, at a hostel, they ask themselves why they are doing it.
C2 · 306 words · 3 min
DialogueFood and cooking
Dopo la recensione
A restaurant critic has published a harsh review. The chef invites him to talk — not to argue.
C2 · 252 words · 2 min
MessageEveryday life
La casa di mamma e papà
Three siblings have to decide what happens to their parents’ house by the lake. In the chat, feelings and figures collide.
C2 · 244 words · 2 min
EmailEveryday life
Lettera al sindaco
A resident writes an open letter to the mayor proposing to close the old town to cars on Sundays.
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Learning words one at a time and practising grammar one point at a time is work on separate parts. A text is the first thing that needs both at once — and the only exercise where nobody tells you which rule is being tested.
What makes a graded text is a number: how much of it you already know at your level. If it is too low, reading turns into looking things up. Here that number is calculated for every text against this site’s vocabulary and shown with the text — together with the level that follows from it, next to the level on the label.
Every text is written for this site. Click a word to look it up without leaving the page.
What is measured here — and what is not
Coverage tells you about this site’s vocabulary, not about the text. If a text stands at 96 %, four words in a hundred are not explained anywhere here; they are then in the glossary next to the text.
The measured level can be below the stated one, and that is intentional. A set of minutes made up of perfectly ordinary words can be a very hard text — what makes it hard is the sentences they sit in. That is why the average sentence length is shown alongside.
Whether a text is good is measured by nobody here. That is for the reader to decide.