Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
The Ugly Duckling realizes that he isn't so ugly after all.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
La luna di traverso (the moon on its side) is a way of saying "bad mood." Dixi got up on the wrong side of the bed, but being a magical little elephant, he has the actual sidelong moon on his hands. What to do?
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Dixi needs to tinkle and Tribo works some fun magic to give Dixi the space and time he needs.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
Hans Christian Andersen's classic fairy tale, "The Ugly Duckling", is presented in Italian. These fairy tales are so familiar that they allow us to fully concentrate on the words and spare us the worry of not understanding what's happening in the story.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Dixi and his friends play hide-and-seek. To decide whose turn it is, Tribo recites the Italian equivalent to "eenie, meenie, miny, moe."
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
"Puss in Boots" underscores what we all know—cats have everything figured out.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Dixi, with a little help from his friends, learns how to ride his bicycle without using the training wheels.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
Usually associated with Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm, the tale of "Puss in Boots" was, instead, first written down by Giovanni Francesco Straparola in the 1550s. It is not known whether he invented the tale or whether it reflects an older oral tradition.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
Dixi goes to a party to celebrate spring, where his hungry little tummy gets plenty of attention. In Italian, a hungry tummy growls, using the verb "brontolare." Both a "growl" and a "brontolio" are onomatopoeic.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
The Dixieland airborne emergency squad rescues a comet and Dixi receives a wonderful ride through the sky as thanks.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Dixi and his friends compete in an art competition using the colors of the rainbow. The prize is a mouth-watering Chocolate Trophy.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Dixi gets himself in another pickle, but Tribo comes to the rescue with a very simple solution to the problem of retrieving breakfast biscuits from the dark basement pantry.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Dixi gets a bad case of the hiccups, but Tribo has a tried-and-true remedy. Attenzione! In Italian, hiccups appear in the singular: il singhiozzo!
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Dixi meets Cumo, a flying piglet, in the cloudy sky. At first he worries, but then enjoys it.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Dixi is a sweet little flying elephant who faces his adventures with optimism and innocence. It's party time.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
In fairy tales, good triumphs over evil in the end. This one's no exception.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
Here's one of the most famous fairy tales of all, "Cinderella." The Italian, "La Cenerentola" comes from the noun la cenere (ash, ashes, cinder). See how much you can understand without the English subtitles!
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
Being a fairy tale, there's a happy ending. Maybe you'll understand it even without the subtitles!
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
There's plenty of new vocabulary in the well-known story of "Sleeping Beauty". And since there are both a king and a queen, and twelve fairies, many verbs are in the third person plural of the passato remoto! Make the most of it!
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
Many of us know how this story ends. That's why it will be easy to understand. And there are still plenty of verbs to learn in the passato remoto!
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
"The Frog Prince" is a famous fairy tale—nothing new! But what an opportunity to learn and practice the passato remoto! In everyday conversations this tense is rare in much of Italy, but when we're talking about "once upon a time..." it's a mainstay.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
A cartoon in which two aquarium fish worry about the kids of the house who are going on a school trip.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Somehow Pippo and Palla get kidnapped and they begin to worry about ending up in a can!
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
The parents are arguing and Palla worries that it will end in divorce, and this could mean being flushed down the toilet. Luckily, the parents patch things up.
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