In 1749, King Charles of Bourbon (Charles III of Spain) or Carlo Terzo di Borbone, who was King of Naples at the time, commissioned an important campaign of archeological digs in an area near that city. Marika tells us the story.

Here's the last segment about the verb tenere where Marika provides several expressions using the verb. In some cases, we can use "to keep" and "to hold" when translating, but not always.

We learn in this segment that the verb tenere can mean not only "to hold," but also "to keep" or "to have."

As promised, Marika talks about the verb tenere (to keep, to hold), beginning with its conjugation. Let's keep in mind that Italian tenses don't always correspond to the English ones. For example, the passato prossimo is conjugated like the English present perfect tense, but is used differently in expressing events in time. The imperfetto is translated various ways in English. See this lesson about the imperfetto.

In Italy, August is the warmest month, and most Italians try to go on vacation for at least part of the month. The most important vacation day is August 15th, called Ferragosto.

Piggeldy and Frederick take a walk on a path they'd been on before, but they are in for some surprises. They discover that "tidying up" doesn't always mean the same thing.

Piggeldy and his big brother Frederick are out and about, discovering and learning about the world. This time they set out to find where the sky begins.

This story teaches us how important it is to accept those who might not look like us and to be patient about finding our place in the world. And sometimes something that seems like a defect, can be a gift.

Pimpa searches through a trunk for something to do and finds an object she doesn't recognize. She asks Big Armando and this really starts the ball rolling for an adventurous day.

The Ugly Duckling was written by Hans Christian Andersen, and published for the first time in 1843. In Italian, stories are generally recounted using two main past tenses: the passato remoto and the imperfetto, so even if you are "too old" for these kinds of things, this story, told by Arianna, is an excellent way to get some practice.

It's a sunny day and Pimpa would like to go to the beach. This time she has some adult company. She meets a daredevil rubber boat named Fausto, and consequently gets into a little trouble, but she also learns an important lesson that will be useful to her later on.

Are you ready for plenty of expressions using the verb vedere (to see)? Andiamo a vedere (let's go see)!

We take a deep dive into the common and very useful verb vedere (to see). First of all, we look at how it is conjugated. Then we go on to its meaning, as well as some expressions.

Armando goes to work, looking forward to eating some apples from the tree when he gets home. Meanwhile, Pimpa decides to bake him a cake, and then meets a new friend, a hungry crocodile.

Omonimi (homonyms) look and sound the same but have different meanings, sometimes wildly different meanings!