B1 · Finding your flow
Polly's weekly adventures and real-world stories.
- Coccodrilli in Acqua Salata The salt lake holds hundreds of American crocodiles, an island of rare iguanas, and the memory of ten years... Audio
- Il Lago Che Sta Sotto il Mare Polly finds the largest lake in the Caribbean, saltier than the ocean, lying in a valley lower than the sea. Audio
- Acqua Che Si È Fatta Dura In the workshops of Barahona the rough rock is cut open, and inside is a blue found in only one place on... Audio
- Risali il Fiume e la Troverai The blue stone came down the river, not out of the sea. Polly follows it up into the mountains. Audio
- Otto Chilometri Senza Nulla Sopra Polly finds an empty protected bay at the far corner of the country, then flies home over the coffee... Audio
- Una Collina Piena di Buchi The blue stone is dug out entirely by hand, because a machine would break it. Audio
- La Strada Senza Più Spazio Polly arrives in the southwest of the Dominican Republic, where the mountains meet the sea, and finds one... Audio
- La corsa in cui vince sempre il formaggio Once a year in England, people chase a wheel of cheese down a dangerously steep hill, and the cheese almost... Audio
- Due animali nuovissimi, grandi quanto un'unghia Scientists in Montenegro just described two snail species new to science, found on limestone cliffs in a... Audio
- Il giorno in cui un vero insetto ruppe un computer In nineteen forty-seven, engineers found an actual moth stuck inside a giant computer, taped it into their... Audio
- Il gamberetto con un sole dentro la chela A small ocean shrimp snaps its claw so fast that it creates a flash of heat nearly as hot as the surface of... Audio
- La casa divisa tra due paesi In a small town on the Belgian-Dutch border, some houses sit in two countries at once, and the front door... Audio
- L'esercito che perse contro gli uccelli In nineteen thirty-two the Australian military was sent against emus eating the wheat crop in Western... Audio
- Gli scimpanzé hanno l'accento A new study of more than eleven thousand recorded calls found that young chimpanzees in different parts of... Audio
- Internet vive sott'acqua Almost all international internet traffic travels along cables lying on the sea floor, which break... Audio
- L'animale che fa i cubi Wombats are the only known animal to produce cube shaped droppings, and the corners are formed by uneven... Audio
- La città che vive in un solo palazzo Almost every resident of Whittier, Alaska lives inside a single fourteen storey building reached through a... Audio
- Quello che il fuoco non ha mai preso Polly takes one last high look at Kanazawa, waits out the rain from the sea, and leaves a city that kept... Audio
- Lanterne su una strada che lavora In Higashi Chaya, Polly finds a lantern-lit street of wooden teahouses that still works today, and a shop... Audio
- La cucina alle prime luci Before dawn at Omicho market, Polly sees 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 coin... Audio
- Le sei cose che un giardino dovrebbe essere In Kenrokuen, Polly watches koi in a famous pond and learns how gardeners rig cones of rope over the pines... Audio
- Tetti bianchi e lunghe mura At Kanazawa Castle, Polly walks the long stone walls and finds roofs made of lead, weathered white, that... Audio
- La città che fu risparmiata Polly arrives in Kanazawa, a city between the sea and the mountains, and finds an old wooden centre that... Audio
- Diecimila atleti, una sola serata di apertura The 2026 Asian Games, hosted jointly by Aichi and Nagoya, Japan, bring together roughly ten thousand... Audio
- La banca che accetta solo formaggio An Italian bank keeps a vault holding more than half a million wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano, accepted as... Audio
- Quel numero della batteria è una supposizione A phone's battery percentage is not a direct measurement, but an estimate calculated from voltage and... Audio
- Questa spiaggia è fatta di spazzatura A sparkling beach in Northern California is made entirely of old dumped glass, smoothed into colorful... Audio
- Questo edificio non ha il quarto piano In much of East Asia, elevators skip the number four entirely, because it sounds exactly like the word for... Audio
- La nebbia si chiude dietro di lei On her last afternoon, Polly flies high over the island one more time before fog rolls in and hides it... Audio
- Un villaggio collegato a un vulcano Polly finds the same underground heat that cooked lunch also fills a giant public pool and warms homes,... Audio
- Cena sepolta all'alba Polly watches a cook lower sealed pots into holes heated only by the volcano below, where dinner cooks for... Audio
- Un cratere, due colori Polly finds one huge old crater holding two lakes side by side, one blue and one green, joined underneath... Audio
- L'uccello dato per perso due volte Polly searches an old laurel forest for the priolo, a tiny grey and pink bird found only here, once thought... Audio
- Gli ultimi due giardini d'Europa Polly finds one of only two working tea plantations left in Europe, started after disease wiped out the... Audio
- Nove isole, tre placche Polly arrives over São Miguel, the largest of the nine Azores islands, and learns that three tectonic... Audio
- Un braccio che sa assaggiare Octopus suckers contain special receptors that let an arm taste whatever it touches, even in total darkness. Audio
- Lo stipendio più grande nella storia dell'atletica A brand new athletics championship this month paid its winners more than the sport has ever offered before. Audio
- Insegnare a un computer a parlare balena Researchers are using artificial intelligence to search for real structure inside the clicking patterns of... Audio
- Il lento battito degli alberi Laser scans at night revealed that trees pulse gently every few hours, possibly pumping water through their... Audio
- Fiori alle tre del mattino At three in the morning, Bangkok's biggest flower market is more awake than midday, and it never really... 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 a fast-ripening ancient barley became Orkney's daily bread and its... Audio
- Il raduno sugli scogli At a chapel built by prisoners of war from two metal huts, an islander tells Polly how careful, beautiful... Audio
- Costruito con quello che avevano Polly finds a huge grey seal colony gathering on Orkney's rocks just before pupping season begins. Audio
- Il villaggio sotto la tempesta In a small workshop, Polly watches the straw-backed Orkney chair take shape, a design born from having no... 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 windy, treeless group of islands and learns that ordinary green fields hide thousands... Audio
- Questo Uccello Dorme Mentre Vola Frigatebirds stay in the air for days over open ocean, and researchers put recorders on their heads to find... Audio
- Il Pranzo Che un Intero Paese Mangia In the Dominican Republic the main meal lands at midday, it is almost always the same three things, and the... Audio
- La Tua Mappa Sarebbe Sbagliata Prima di Pranzo Satellite clocks tick faster than clocks on the ground, and if nobody corrected for it your phone would... Audio
- Tu Brilli. Nessuno Può Vederlo. Human skin gives off a faint light all day long, and a Japanese team photographed it in a sealed dark room. Audio
- Questo Blu Esiste in un Solo Posto A stony beach in the Dominican southwest, one pebble that is blue all the way through, and the single... Audio
- Partire alle prime luci Polly watches one last sunrise with Berta and follows the river out of town. Audio
- Il pastore alla porta Polly follows a flock of sheep, a shepherd and his big mastiff dog to the high meadows. Audio
- Il fiume che circonda la città Polly has a slow day at the river and meets a fox at dusk. Audio
- Gli animali dipinti delle rocce rosse Polly visits the red rocks in the forest and finds animal paintings that are thousands of years old. Audio
- Il muro che scala la montagna Polly flies up the old wall to the watchtower and learns its thousand year story. Audio
- Berta e le case pendenti Berta, an old stone marten, shows Polly the crooked streets and a famous leaning house. Audio
- La città nell'abbraccio del fiume Polly follows a looping river and finds Albarracín, a small pink town in the hills of Spain. Audio
- Un caffè, due paesi In one small town, the border between Belgium and the Netherlands runs straight through streets, houses and... Audio
- I tuoi messaggi viaggiano sott'acqua Almost everything you send across an ocean travels through cables lying on the sea floor, not through... Audio
- La spiaggia che brilla di blu la notte On some warm coasts, the sea lights up electric blue when you touch it. The light comes from billions of... Audio
- L'hotel che si muove mentre dormi On a European night train, you fall asleep in one country and wake up in another, with the Alps outside... Audio
- Il giorno in cui il sole si è spento This week, northern Spain watched the first total solar eclipse over mainland Europe in twenty seven years. Audio
- Polly prende l'autobus Polly boards the bus downtown for the first time, with a patient capybara at the wheel and one nervous... Audio
- Polly chiede la strada Polly gets lost looking for the library and learns that asking is faster than wandering. Audio
- Polly ordina un caffè Polly finds a corner cafe, orders a coffee with milk, discovers churros, and stays for a while by the window. Audio
- Polly al mercato Berta shows Polly the neighborhood market. Polly asks about an unfamiliar fruit, buys apples, and learns... Audio
- Polly conosce qualcuno Polly arrives on a new street, meets Berta the bear over the garden fence, and they agree to meet again at... Audio
- La città che ha riscoperto un fiume For fifty years, Seoul hid a river under an elevated highway. Then the city tore the highway down, and the... Audio
- Un pranzo cucinato da un vulcano On a green island in the Azores, cooks lower a pot into a hot hole in the ground and let the earth slowly... Audio
- Camminando sul Fondo del Mare Twice a day the North Sea pulls back for kilometres, and people walk barefoot across the bare seabed before... Audio
- Gli antichi esseri umani prosperavano nella foresta pluviale Scientists once thought ancient humans avoided rainforests. New evidence from West Africa says they thrived... Audio
- Perché il tuo telefono si spegne al freddo Your phone shows forty percent battery, then dies in the snow. The battery is not empty. It is cold, and... Audio
- Perché il Miele di 3000 Anni Fa è Ancora Commestibile Honey jars from Egyptian tombs three thousand years old are still edible. The chemistry behind a food that... Audio
- La Partita di Tennis che Durò Tre Giorni The longest tennis match ever played: Isner vs. Mahut, Wimbledon 2010, eleven hours, three days, a final... Audio
- Il Polpo che Scassinò la Serratura An octopus called Inky escaped his aquarium tank at night through a drain pipe, and what it reveals about... Audio
- Il castello che il re abitò appena A Bavarian king built a fairy-tale castle on an alpine crag, slept there only a handful of nights, and left... Audio
- Dieci chilometri di altezza Passenger planes cruise about ten kilometres above the ground. That number is not random: it is where the... Audio
- L'Ultimo Treno In Tokyo, the trains stop around midnight. Tomas learns this five minutes too late, and discovers where the... Audio
- Il sole che non tramonta On her last night the sun never sets, and from the golden sky Polly sees her whole week and says goodbye to... Audio
- La Terra Respira Polly watches a geyser erupt, learns why hot water shoots up, and finds a country that heats its homes from... Audio
- Vladivostok Polly arrives in Vladivostok at the end of the 9,289-kilometre Trans-Siberian, stretches her wings, and... Audio
- L'Amur Polly reaches Khabarovsk on the sixth day of the Trans-Siberian, sees the Amur River bordering China, and... Audio
- Lago Baikal Polly spends the fifth day of the Trans-Siberian running along Lake Baikal, the deepest and oldest lake on... Audio
- Fusi Orari Polly explores the dining car on the fourth day, learning that the whole train runs on Moscow time across... Audio
- Attraversando gli Urali Polly crosses the Ural Mountains, the dividing line 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, watching the birch forests of European Russia.... Audio
- Stazione di Yaroslavsky Polly boards the Rossiya at Moscow's Yaroslavsky Station to begin the 9,289-kilometre, seven-day... Audio
- Addio alla Pasta Polly says goodbye to Pasta the octopus and flies out of Naples toward her next destination. Audio
- L'Editore di Se Stesso Polly learns that octopuses edit their own RNA in real time, building a brain that is different in each... Audio
- Pizza e il Lungo Pranzo Polly has the long Italian lunch with Chiara at a Neapolitan pizzeria, learning the protected rules of... 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 a maze with two arms working independently. She learns that two thirds of an... Audio
- Il Barattolo Polly watches Pasta open a screw-top jar to catch a crab, learning that octopus arms taste what they touch... Audio
- La Baia di Napoli Polly arrives in Naples and is welcomed into the world's oldest marine biology institute, where she meets a... Audio
- Lasciando la Valle Polly says goodbye to Ranger Tomas and flies west out of Yosemite, watching a peregrine hunt swifts on her... Audio
- La Via Lattea sopra Glacier Point Polly watches sunset from Glacier Point and stays for the Milky Way, looking through a park astronomer's... Audio
- Mezza Cupola Polly rides thermals up the 1,500-metre north face of Half Dome with a flock of swifts, reaches the summit,... Audio
- Il Falco in Picchiata Polly tries to copy a peregrine falcon's dive from El Capitan, learning how the falcon's third eyelid and... Audio
- La Sequoia Polly visits Mariposa Grove and perches on the Grizzly Giant, a giant sequoia nearly 3,000 years old,... Audio
- In Viaggio con il Ranger Tomas Polly spends a morning in Ranger Tomas's truck, learning how he tracks bear feeding in wildflower meadows... Audio
- Sopra la Valle Polly arrives at Yosemite Valley from the air, takes in its U-shaped glacial geology, watches climbers on... Audio
- La tazza vuota First day at a new office, a small lesson about asking before assuming. Audio
- Numero quarantasette A small injury, an old magazine, and a waiting room that teaches patience. Audio
- Il treno per Granada An overheard phone call on the train turns a long trip into a kind of company. Audio
- La libreria sbagliata A simple coffee order leads to a strange conversation about a bookshop that doesn't exist anymore. Audio
- Persa a Lisbona A wrong turn on a steep street becomes the best part of the trip. Audio
- La stanza 304 ha vista A late check-in turns into a small gift when the hotel runs out of rooms on the lower floors. Audio
- Un tavolo per uno A traveler eats alone in Madrid and discovers the waiter is the real star of the meal. Audio
- L'ombra del corridore Polly arrives in Tromsø during the midnight sun and meets Astrid, a 67-year-old marathoner trying to... Audio