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.

Father Mariani is not much help to Imma, but tells her to be careful. When she gets home, she gets a taste of what he meant, but is not deterred. Imma seems to be of the opinion that "when the going gets tough, the tough get going."

This segment is all about so-called "Near-Earth Objects," called "NEOs" for short. They are comets, asteroids, metors and man-made objects, as well. What have they done in the past, and what might they do in the future?

Here are some more expressions featuring the verb vedere (to see). For non-native speakers, a few of them might be a little tricky to understand, but others might be very useful to learn and use.

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.

Manzi goes to the reform school for his first day of teaching and finds out all the things he will or won't be able to do.

Ugo follows Nora to see what she is doing late at night. In the morning, Yazech explains the roof situation to Nora. Spartacus is helping out with the ironing and expresses his opinion about the roof and Yazech.

Camilla is able to find out why Debbie acts the way she does at school. Enzo goes to the dance school hoping to see Pamela. He does see something else interesting, however. Camilla and Gaetano give Francesca a ride home.

Libero is in excellent health, but he sees things differently. The inauguration of Nilde's restaurant is a day away, and Enrica shows up with a chef she would like to hire.

Marshal La Macchia reports his findings to Imma. Later, she goes to see Father Mariani to discuss an old case that has come to mind.

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

Our final stop in the Baroque south of Italy is the church of San Giorgio, a masterpiece of architecture, admired by the entire world. The cathedral appears in the opening credits of the Italian TV series "Inspector Montalbano," and it also features in some episodes.

In Italy, at least in the past, the process of distributing teaching jobs was a real jungle, as you will see. The list, assembled by a complicated point system, involving test scores, experience, seniority, etc, was what would determine whether an aspiring teacher would have a job that year or not. Alberto Manzi knows he is qualified, but gets an unpleasant surprise at the education office.

Melody and Dino communicate via chat on the computer. Yazech is finishing up the roof, theoretically. But once again, Ugo and Nora have to sleep in the same room.

Potti and Bibì seem happy to be home together, and Livietta is happy too. The jeweler has gone to police headquarters to talk with Torre. At school, there is tension between Debbie and Eugenia. Renzo is thinking about taking dancing lessons.