Ho letto una notizia interessante su un giornalista che vive nella mia città.

Ho letto is the passato prossimo, one of the main Italian past tenses.

It is formed with:

• ho = present tense of avere
• letto = past participle of leggere

So ho letto means I read / I have read, referring to a completed action in the past.

Because leggere takes avere as its auxiliary verb in the passato prossimo.

In Italian, some verbs use avere and some use essere:

• ho letto = I read
• sono andato/a = I went

A good rule is that transitive verbs like leggere usually take avere, because they can have a direct object:

• Ho letto una notizia.

Because with avere, the past participle usually does not agree with the direct object.

So you say:

• Ho letto una notizia
• Ho letto un libro

The participle stays letto.

Agreement is more common:

• with verbs that use essere
• or sometimes with a direct object pronoun placed before the verb

For example:

• L’ho letta = I read it

Here letta agrees with la (feminine singular).

Yes, and this is an important difference.

In Italian, notizia is a countable noun. It means:

• a piece of news
• a news item
• a report

So:

• una notizia = a piece of news / a news story
• due notizie = two pieces of news

Italian can also use le notizie for the news, depending on context.

In Italian, many adjectives commonly come after the noun, especially when they describe or classify it in a neutral way.

So:

• una notizia interessante = an interesting news item
• un libro bello = a beautiful book

Some adjectives can go before the noun, but that often changes the tone or emphasis. In this sentence, notizia interessante is the most natural order.

Here su means about or on the topic of.

So:

• una notizia su un giornalista = a news item about a journalist

This is a very common use of su:

• un libro su Roma = a book about Rome
• un articolo su Dante = an article about Dante

It does not mean physical on here.

Because giornalista begins with a normal consonant sound, so the masculine singular indefinite article is un.

Use:

• un before most masculine singular nouns
• uno before masculine nouns beginning with s + consonant, z, ps, gn, x, and a few others

So:

• un giornalista
• un libro
• but uno studente
• uno zio

It can be either masculine or feminine, depending on the person.

• un giornalista = a male journalist
• una giornalista = a female journalist

The noun form stays the same, but the article changes.

This is common with some Italian nouns ending in -ista:

• un turista / una turista
• un pianista / una pianista

Che vive means who lives.

Here che is a relative pronoun. It links un giornalista to extra information about that person:

• un giornalista che vive nella mia città
• a journalist who lives in my city

In Italian, che often covers the meanings of English who, that, or which, depending on the context.

It describes il giornalista.

So the structure is:

• una notizia interessante
• su un giornalista
• che vive nella mia città

The relative clause che vive nella mia città comes right after un giornalista, so it naturally refers to the journalist.

In other words, it means:

• a news item about a journalist who lives in my city

not:

• a news item that lives in my city obviously impossible in meaning

Because nella is the normal combination of:

• in + la = nella

And with possessives like mia, Italian usually keeps the definite article:

• la mia città = my city
• nella mia città = in my city

So the full phrase is really:

• in + la mia città
• which becomes nella mia città

There is a word for my: it is mia.

But unlike English, Italian usually uses:

• article + possessive + noun

So:

• la mia città = my city
• il mio libro = my book
• i miei amici = my friends

That is why you see nella mia città and not just in mia città.

Yes, but the original order is the most natural and neutral:

• Ho letto una notizia interessante su un giornalista che vive nella mia città.

Italian does allow some flexibility, but changing the order can sound marked, less natural, or put emphasis in a different place.

For example:

• Ho letto su un giornalista una notizia interessante sounds awkward
• Una notizia interessante su un giornalista che vive nella mia città l’ho letta ieri is possible, but much more marked and context-dependent

For a learner, the original order is the best model to follow.