Learn Italian: C'era un grande imbarazzo, ma poi una lunga risata. - There was a great embarrassment, but then a long laugh.

This sentence uses a noun phrase (una lunga risata) to show the sudden event instead of a verb. However, it is a perfect place to use the historical infinitive! You could easily rewrite the second half as ma poi tutti a ridere (but then everyone started laughing) to achieve the exact narrative effect taught in this lesson.

Why do we use the imperfect tense (c'era) instead of a completed past tense here?

C'era sets the scene. The imperfect tense is used for ongoing states or background atmospheres in the past. The embarrassment wasn't a single, quick action; it was a lingering atmosphere in the room before the sudden laugh interrupted it.

Is there a verb missing in the second half of the sentence?

Yes, a verb like c'è stata (there was) or è scoppiata (burst out) is implied after ma poi. Dropping the verb in the second clause is a common literary trick in Italian to make the sudden shift in the story feel faster and more dramatic.

How does una risata differ from the other word for laughter, il riso?