The 3 highschool kids tell us more about their types of schools and the subjects they are taking. Two of them give younger students some advice.

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.

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.

Mina's famous song, "Giorni" [Days] is performed here by Laura Vignes, for the fifth edition of the Festival Nazionale della Canzone D'Autore [National Festival of Songwriters] for young talents.

Laura Sini, a finalist at the 2011 edition of Videofestival Live, sings about having to leave her native Sardinia in order to further her music career. This video was kindly provided by pa74music.

Biagio Antonacci wrote the song "Vivimi" for Laura Pausini in 2004. "Vivimi" is tricky to translate, as it can mean "share life with me" or "experience me" or "live me."

In the back room of the pharmacy, there's an important meeting going on. Eva and her friends decide to take action.

A fun way to get some insight into the Italian constitution—an animated illustration of some of its main points. Turri Scandurra: “La Costituzione per tutti” (The constitution for everyone).

Natale tends his vegetable garden and tries to save his strawberry plants from the neighbor's chickens.

Natale is proud of his fava beans, which he plans to harvest in time for the holiday family gathering on May first. Other featured produce includes artichokes and wild asparagus.

From the heart of Tuscany, famous for its olive oil, Tuscans Lisetta and Alessio talk about how olive oil is made.

Lisetta and Alessio show us how they like to taste their new, freshly pressed olive oil. Since oil can be used uncooked to dress salads, or used as cooking oil, they call the uncooked oil olio crudo (raw oil).

Here we go with a new series with Anna and Marika. Each video will feature an oral quiz — just like in actual Italian schools — about a region of Italy. A separate cooking video will feature a recipe from that region. We start in the "heel of the boot": Puglia.

Anna gets grilled on Sicily by Marika. Oral quizzes are very frequently used in Italian schools. Grading is done on a scale from 1-10 for primary and secondary schools, and from 1-30 at the university level.

Marika completes the recipe for "pasta alla Norma," and serves it up. It's evident that Anna thinks it's real good, too. In fact, she describes it as troppo buono (too good), a typical colloquial way to say "very, very good."