C1 · Stretch yourself
Rich, natural texts about places, history and ideas.
- Risali il Fiume e la Troverai The blue stone did not come from the sea. Polly follows the river up into the mountains, the way two men... Audio
- La Strada Senza Più Spazio Polly reaches the southwest corner of the Dominican Republic, where the mountains push the road against the... Audio
- Otto Chilometri Senza Nulla Sopra At the far southwest tip of the country there is a bay with nothing built on it, and then it is time to fly... Audio
- Il Lago Che Sta Sotto il Mare Inland from Barahona lies the largest lake in the Caribbean, saltier than the ocean, in a valley lower than... Audio
- Una Collina Piena di Buchi Above one village the mountain is worked entirely by hand, because the only machine that could get the blue... Audio
- Coccodrilli in Acqua Salata The salt lake holds the largest gathering of American crocodiles in the Caribbean, an island of rare... Audio
- Acqua Che Si È Fatta Dura In the workshops of Barahona the rough rock is opened, and inside is a blue that exists in exactly one... Audio
- Due specie mai classificate, trovate su una parete rocciosa Scientists in Montenegro have described two snail species new to science, found on limestone cliffs in a... Audio
- Il gamberetto con un sole dentro la chela A small ocean shrimp snaps its claw so violently that it produces a flash of heat nearly as hot as the... Audio
- La guerra che l'Australia perse contro gli emù In nineteen thirty-two the Australian military was deployed against emus devastating the wheat crop in... Audio
- Gli scimpanzé, a quanto pare, hanno un accento A new study of more than eleven thousand recorded calls finds that young chimpanzees in different parts of... Audio
- La banca che concede prestiti in cambio di formaggio An Italian bank stores and ages more than half a million wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano, accepted as... Audio
- Perché la tua mappa sbaglierebbe già prima di pranzo Satellites tick at a different rate than clocks on the ground, and without a deliberate correction your... Audio
- Il bagliore che la tua pelle non smette mai di emettere Human skin gives off a faint light around the clock, invisible to the eye, as a Japanese team confirmed by... Audio
- Che cosa porta davvero le tue parole oltreoceano Almost everything sent between continents travels not through satellites but through cables lying on the... Audio
- L'albergo che attraversa i confini mentre dormi On a European night train, a traveller falls asleep in one country and wakes in another, with the Alps... Audio
- Il fiume che Seoul ha tenuto segreto per mezzo secolo Seoul spent decades entombing a river beneath a highway, then reversed course and dug it back into the... Audio
- Quello che la domenica ancora pretende An adult granddaughter returns home for Sunday paella and discovers that her octogenarian grandfather's... Audio
- La città che vive dentro un solo edificio Almost the entire population of Whittier, Alaska lives inside a single fourteen storey building, reached... Audio
- Un bar, due paesi In the Belgian Dutch town of Baarle, the international border runs straight through streets, houses, and... Audio
- Il castello che il suo re vide a malapena Bavaria's King Ludwig the Second poured a fortune into a fairy tale castle he would inhabit for barely a... Audio
- A piedi sul fondo del mare Twice each day, the tide withdraws for kilometres along the Wattenmeer coast, inviting walkers onto the... Audio
- Il telefono non è morto. Ha solo freddo. A phone that shows forty percent battery and then dies the moment you step into the cold has not run out of... Audio
- A dieci chilometri d'altezza Passenger jets cruise about ten kilometres up not for the view but because that is where thin air starts... Audio
- Il miele che è sopravvissuto agli imperi Honey sealed inside Egyptian tombs thousands of years ago remains perfectly edible today, and the reason... Audio
- Il polpo evaso dalla sua vasca An octopus named Inky vanished from a New Zealand aquarium overnight, and the ingenious route he took to... Audio
- Quello che il fuoco non ha mai preso Polly makes one last high pass over Kanazawa, waits out the rain that comes off the Sea of Japan almost... Audio
- Lanterne su una strada che lavora In Higashi Chaya, Polly finds a lantern-lit street of wooden teahouses that is still a working... Audio
- La cucina alle prime luci Before dawn at Omicho market, Polly watches fish laid out on ice in a market three hundred years old, and... Audio
- Battuto finché quasi non c'è più In a gold leaf workshop, Polly learns that Kanazawa makes almost all of Japan's gold leaf, and that a piece... Audio
- Le sei cose che un giardino dovrebbe essere In Kenrokuen, Polly watches koi turn under a famous pond and learns how gardeners rig great cones of rope... Audio
- Tetti bianchi e lunghe mura At Kanazawa Castle, Polly walks ramparts built by the richest lords in Japan and finds roofs tiled in lead,... Audio
- La città che fu risparmiata Polly arrives in Kanazawa, a city held between the Sea of Japan and the mountains, and finds an old wooden... Audio
- La nebbia si chiude dietro di lei On her last afternoon, Polly climbs high over the whole island one more time before fog rolls in from the... Audio
- Un villaggio collegato a un vulcano Walking through the village, Polly finds the same underground heat that cooked lunch also fills a giant... Audio
- Cena sepolta all'alba Beside a steaming lake, Polly watches a cook lower sealed pots into holes heated only by the volcano below,... Audio
- Un cratere, due colori Polly finds an ancient volcanic crater holding two lakes side by side, one blue and one green, joined... Audio
- L'uccello dato per perso due volte Deep in an old laurel forest, Polly searches for the priolo, a tiny grey and pink bird found nowhere else... Audio
- Gli ultimi due giardini d'Europa Polly lands on a terraced hillside where one of only two working tea plantations left in Europe still uses... Audio
- Nove isole, tre placche Polly arrives over São Miguel, the largest of the nine Azores islands, and finds a coastline of black... Audio
- Il cerchio e la barca del mattino On her last evening, Polly finds an ancient stone circle raised over four thousand years ago and sits... Audio
- Il grano dei novanta giorni At an old water mill, Polly learns how an ancient, fast-ripening barley became Orkney's daily bread and its... Audio
- Il raduno sugli scogli At a small chapel built by prisoners of war from two metal huts, an islander tells Polly how the most... Audio
- Costruito con quello che avevano Polly finds one of the world's most important grey seal breeding grounds gathering on Orkney's skerries... Audio
- Il villaggio sotto la tempesta In a harbourside workshop, Polly watches the straw-backed Orkney chair take shape, a design born entirely... Audio
- La sedia accanto al fuoco A storm-uncovered mound turns out to be a five-thousand-year-old stone village, older than Stonehenge and... Audio
- Arriva la barca del mattino Polly arrives over a windswept, treeless archipelago and learns that beneath its ordinary green fields lie... Audio
- Partire alle prime luci Polly says goodbye to Berta on the watchtower at dawn and lets the river lead her out of Albarracín. Audio
- Il pastore alla porta At dawn a flock of sheep pours through the old town gate, and Polly joins the shepherd, his mastiff and the... Audio
- Il fiume che circonda la città Polly spends a slow day down on the Guadalaviar, the river that wraps the town like a moat, and shares dusk... Audio
- Gli animali dipinti delle rocce rosse In the pine forest of red stone outside town, Polly finds paintings of animals made by human hands... Audio
- Il muro che scala la montagna Polly climbs the great wall above the town to a square stone watchtower and learns who built it more than a... Audio
- Berta e le case pendenti An old stone marten who lives inside the town walls shows Polly the crooked lanes of Albarracín, including... Audio
- La città nell'abbraccio del fiume Polly follows a looping river into the hills of eastern Spain and finds Albarracín, a pink town stacked... Audio
- Polly prende l'autobus One nervous first ride, a capybara who has seen it all, and the exact moment a new neighborhood starts... Audio
- Polly chiede la strada Twenty minutes of proud wandering, one patient owl, and the discovery that a single question is worth more... Audio
- Polly ordina un caffè A rainy afternoon pushes Polly into the corner cafe, where a badger with a bow tie, a first coffee order,... Audio
- Polly al mercato Berta keeps her promise and walks Polly through the Saturday market, where a spiky fruit, a chatty goat,... Audio
- Polly conosce qualcuno On moving day, Polly meets Berta the bear watering her geraniums, and a chat over the fence turns into a... Audio
- La balena che ha percorso quindicimila chilometri Polly learns about two humpback whales who swam 14,000+ km from Australia to Brazil, breaking the world... Audio
- Scalando il Luogo Più Arido Polly arrives at ESO's Paranal Observatory in the Atacama, the driest place on Earth, where four enormous... Audio
- Vladivostok Polly arrives in Vladivostok at the end of the Trans-Siberian's 9,289 kilometres, stretches her wings, and... Audio
- L'Amur Polly reaches the Russian Far East on the sixth day of the Trans-Siberian, sees the Amur River bordering... Audio
- Lago Baikal Polly spends the fifth day of the Trans-Siberian running along Lake Baikal, the deepest, oldest, and... Audio
- Fusi Orari Polly explores the dining car on the fourth day of the Trans-Siberian and learns that the whole train runs... Audio
- Attraversando gli Urali Polly crosses the Ural Mountains, the geographic boundary between Europe and Asia, on the third day of the... Audio
- Le Foreste di Betulle Polly wakes up on the second morning of the Trans-Siberian crossing the birch forests of European Russia.... Audio
- Stazione di Yaroslavsky Polly boards the Rossiya, the flagship train of the Trans-Siberian Railway, at Moscow's Yaroslavsky... Audio
- Addio alla Pasta Polly says goodbye to Pasta the octopus, who presses one arm against the glass exactly opposite where... Audio
- L'Editore di Se Stesso Polly learns that octopuses edit their own RNA in real time, tuning their nervous systems to their... Audio
- Pizza e il Lungo Pranzo Polly takes the long lunch with Chiara at a Neapolitan pizzeria, learning the protected rules behind... Audio
- La Pelle che Vede Polly watches Pasta find food under a coloured plate even though octopuses are colour-blind through their... Audio
- Il Corpo che Pensa Polly watches Pasta solve an acrylic maze using two arms independently. She learns that two-thirds of an... Audio
- Il Barattolo Polly watches a giant Pacific octopus named Pasta open a screw-top jar to retrieve a live crab. She learns... Audio
- La Baia di Napoli Polly arrives in Naples and is welcomed into the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, the world's oldest marine... Audio
- Lasciare la Valle Polly says goodbye to Ranger Tomas at the visitor centre and lifts off west out of Yosemite, leaving behind... Audio
- La Via Lattea su Glacier Point Polly watches sunset from Glacier Point and stays for the Milky Way, looking through a park astronomer's... Audio
- Mezza Cupola Polly climbs the 1,500-metre north face of Half Dome on rising thermals with a flock of white-throated... Audio
- Il Falco in Picchiata Polly tries to copy a peregrine falcon's dive after seeing one launch from El Capitan, learning about the... Audio
- La Sequoia Polly visits Mariposa Grove and climbs into the canopy of the Grizzly Giant, a giant sequoia nearly 3,000... Audio
- In Viaggio con il Ranger Tomas Polly rides shotgun with Ranger Tomas Rodriguez through Yosemite for a morning, learning how rangers... Audio
- Sopra la Valle Polly arrives at Yosemite Valley from the air, taking in the U-shaped glacial geology, El Capitan with... Audio