Le città invisibili
Italo Calvino · 1972
Marco Polo describes cities to Kublai Khan - cities that don't exist, or shouldn't, or might. Short chapters, beautiful Italian, perfect for reading in pieces.
Italian · Italiano
Read Italian books with in-context translation.
Open Calvino, Ferrante or your own EPUB. Tap any word and get the meaning it has in that sentence - idioms and Dante’s old Tuscan included - with a short note on why.
Le avventure di Pinocchio · I
C’era una volta... - Un re! - diranno subito i miei piccoli lettori. - No, ragazzi, avete sbagliato. C’era una volta un pezzo di legno. Non era un legno di lusso, ma un semplice pezzo da catasta, di quelli che d’inverno si mettono nelle stufe e nei caminetti per accendere il fuoco e per riscaldare le stanze.
da catastaSave
from the woodpile
Plain firewood · catasta is literally “a stack”
SentenceWhy?Grammar
Why the original
Why read Italian books in the original
Italian is the closest modern Romance language to Latin. The grammar is intricate (subjunctive, conditional, agreement), but the language itself is musical and a pleasure to read aloud.
Italy also has one of the deepest literary traditions in Europe and one of the strongest contemporary scenes. Calvino in the 70s, Eco in the 80s, Ferrante in the 2010s. Each of them sounds completely different in the original than in translation.
For a Spanish or French speaker, Italian reads almost easily. Even without those, vocabulary builds quickly, and the spelling is regular - if you can say it, you can spell it.
Start here
Six Italian books worth your time
Import any DRM-free EPUB of these, or start with a free classic from the app’s library.
L'amica geniale
Elena Ferrante · 2011
First in the Neapolitan Quartet. Modern Italian, addictive narrative, two girls growing up in a poor neighbourhood of Naples in the 1950s.
Il nome della rosa
Umberto Eco · 1980
Medieval mystery in a monastery, written by a semiotician who couldn't help being clever. Long, but the Italian rewards attention.
Se questo è un uomo
Primo Levi · 1947
Levi was a chemist who survived Auschwitz. The Italian is plain, deliberately so, and that plainness gives the book its weight.
Il Gattopardo
Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa · 1958
Sicily during the Risorgimento, told by a writer who finished his only novel just before dying. The most quoted line in modern Italian literature comes from here.
La Divina Commedia
Dante Alighieri · circa 1320
The foundation of Italian literature. The Italian here is medieval but readable, and it's the reason modern Italian sounds the way it does.
What a dictionary misses
Italian you’ll meet in books - explained in place.
da catastaplain firewood
A “pezzo da catasta” is a log from the woodpile - Collodi is telling you Pinocchio starts out as nothing special.
in bocca al lupogood luck
Literally “into the wolf’s mouth”. The reply is “crepi!” - may the wolf die.
selva oscuraa dark wood
Dante’s “selva” is the old literary word for forest; today you’d say “bosco”.
By level
How to read Italian at your level.
A2
Short and familiar
Start with short pieces - Calvino’s Le città invisibili comes in chapters of a page or two. Tap freely, save the words you meet twice.
B1
Read for the story
Ferrante’s L’amica geniale and Primo Levi read clearly and pull you forward. Use “Why?” on idioms, skip what you can guess.
B2+
Go for the classics
Eco, Il Gattopardo, then Dante. Ask for grammar on old Tuscan forms and export your deck to Anki.
In the app
How LinguaRead works with Italian
Drop in any Italian EPUB. Tap a word for the meaning, the gender, the conjugation. Tap again to see why passato prossimo here and not passato remoto, why subjunctive after credere, why this preposition.
Italian has a high density of small grammatical words doing important work - articles, prepositions, pronouns. Reading in context is the only way to develop a feel for which one goes where. The grammar table is there if you want it; the story is what makes it stick.
Italian FAQ
Before you start.
Can I read Dante as a learner?
With patience. The Commedia is written in 14th-century Tuscan, so many words look familiar but mean something older. Tap them and the note gives the old sense and today’s word. Try a canto at a time.
Does it explain the passato remoto?
Yes. Novels are often narrated in the passato remoto - tap a verb like “entrò” and the grammar note tells you the tense and the infinitive.
Can I import Italian EPUBs from other stores?
Any DRM-free EPUB works - from Project Gutenberg, your own files or stores that sell without DRM. Books locked to another app’s DRM can’t be opened.
What about regional Italian in dialogue?
Explanations follow the sentence, so a southern or Sicilian turn of phrase in Il Gattopardo gets the meaning it has there, with a note on where it comes from.
Your first Italian book, tonight.
Free to try on iPhone and iPad.
