The Adventures of Pinocchio — Chapter 31 in Italian
By Carlo Collodi
Finalmente la carrozza arrivò; e arrivò senza far il minimo rumore, poiché le sue ruote erano avvolte in stoppa e stracci. At last the coach arrived; and it arrived without making the slightest noise, for its wheels were bound round with tow and rags.
Era trainata da dodici paia di asini, tutti della stessa grandezza ma di colori diversi. It was drawn by twelve pairs of donkeys, all the same size but of different colours.
Alcuni erano grigi, altri bianchi, alcuni tigrati come pepe e sale, e altri ancora avevano larghe strisce gialle e blu. Some were gray, some white, some brindled like pepper and salt, and others had large stripes of yellow and blue.
Ma la cosa più straordinaria era questa: i dodici paia, cioè i ventiquattro asini, invece di essere ferrati come gli altri animali da soma, avevano ai piedi stivali da uomo fatti di capretto bianco. But the most extraordinary thing was this: the twelve pairs, that is the twenty-four donkeys, instead of being shod like other beasts of burden, had on their feet men's boots made of white kid.