On this page you will find short Italian stories for beginner learners (A1–A2).
The collection includes folk tales, texts from open-source literature, and original stories, all adapted with simple language and clear structures.
The texts are intended for adult learners and for extensive reading: the goal is to understand the general meaning of the story, not to study grammar.
Each story includes: 1) a glossary of the most difficult words, 2) an audio file to listen to the pronunciatio, at the end, 3) a link to download the PDF of the story
To download the PDF, open the story and scroll to the bottom of the page. The download link is located there.
These stories help improve reading comprehension, expand vocabulary, and practice listening in a natural way.
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La vecchia e la gallina
An old woman makes a series of decisions about her animals and learns that money cannot replace everything.
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L’ombra nel bosco
Lorenzo hears his young daughter talking to an unseen friend and begins to fear what might be hiding in the woods.
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Goffredo va al mercato
Goffredo leaves for the market with his cow and makes a surprising series of trades on the way home.
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Quando arriva la sera
Marco rents a quiet mountain apartment for a holiday, but the villagers hide a disturbing secret.
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Il cammello nella tenda
A merchant lets his camel into the tent a little at a time, with unexpected consequences.
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Un uomo molto ricco
Romualdo travels abroad, misunderstands a simple phrase, and imagines he has met the richest man in the world.
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Il fascicolo AY475
Arnaldo trusts the rules of a futuristic city until a mysterious case file changes his life.
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Uno strano negozio
In a mysterious Paris shop, people trade their troubles for someone else’s, but every exchange carries a risk.
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Il passaggio in auto
On a foggy evening, a driver offers a lift to a mysterious woman and discovers something unsettling the next day.
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Il pozzo nel cortile
Ravi buys a house with a well, but the former owner insists that the well still belongs to him.
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Il prezzo del fumo
In medieval Alexandria, a poor man is accused of enjoying the smell of food without paying for it.
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Il treno di notte
After retiring to the countryside, Riccardo hears a train at night where no train should pass.
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Il trucco
A stranger offers a struggling toy-shop owner a magical solution, but the price is not what he expects.
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Il truffatore
Giorgio makes a living deceiving travelers at railway stations, until he meets someone cleverer than himself.
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La capretta nel pozzo
When Karim finds his little goat at the bottom of a well, he must think of a way to save her.
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La donna del terzo piano
Laura moves into a new apartment and hears strange noises from the neighbor upstairs.
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La donna nella stanza
A woman wakes up in an unfamiliar room and begins to remember the frightening events that brought her there.
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La donna vestita di nero
Walking home through a dark park, Marco encounters a figure from the neighborhood’s ghost stories.
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La metropolitana
Sofia takes the underground train late at night and experiences a journey she will never forget.
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Fame nelle tenebre
A horror reading: it moves silently in the shadows. It senses the presence of the monster, but it must reach that sweet scent that draws it in. At any cost, even its life.
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Arturo e gli SMS
A mysterious anonymous message warns Arturo not to leave his home. Strange lights appear in the sky in this illustrated Italian short story with audio and vocabulary notes.