Verb conjugation of "leggere" in Italian

I know it is a little confusing. The problem is if the original word is a conjugated verb: I skipped them until now. I did not write it in my explanations. It actually must be skipped. Thanks for noticing.
It was the first time that we were on the Italian side of the lakes. It is amazing to see how different things can be on two sides of the border. People dress and behave differently. It was a great experience. I even used words from Lesson 45.
In school, we now are learning the grammar part, more specifically, the participles and so on. I understand it at all, but the conjugations, boy they are tough. A lot of patience is needed.