Learn Italian: La vita era più semplice di adesso.

era is the imperfetto (imperfect tense) of essere (to be). We use it here because we are describing an ongoing state or how things "used to be" in the past. The passato prossimo (è stata) would sound like a single, completed event with a clear end.

Why does the sentence say La vita instead of just Vita?

In English, we drop "the" when talking about general concepts like "life". In Italian, abstract concepts and broad categories almost always need their definite article, so it has to be la vita.

Why is "simpler" translated as two words (più semplice)?

Italian doesn't have an equivalent to the English "-er" ending for adjectives. To say "simpler", you literally have to say "more simple" by putting più (more) in front of the adjective semplice.

Why does di mean "than" in di adesso?

When comparing things, "than" is usually translated as di when it is directly followed by a noun, a pronoun, or a time word like adesso (now).