Read six stories of Lombard village life by Avancinio Avancini in the original Italian beside a clear English translation, one sentence at a time. A winter's tale from the valleys, a girl who becomes a victim of the parish's gossip, a man nicknamed Mahomet, papà Gedeone's watch, Don Bonomo left without his supper, and the reins of Brunello.

Every sentence is aligned Italian-to-English, so you always know exactly what you are reading. Tap any word for an instant definition, listen to natural audio in both languages, and follow the highlighted word alignment as the story is read aloud.

Avancini writes plain, warm, standard Italian with a great deal of dialogue, and each story runs to only two or three pages — the shortest chapters of any Italian reader in the collection, which makes it a good place to start reading real Italian.

This reader is part of a growing collection of bilingual story apps that pair timeless tales with modern language-learning tools.