The Trapassato Remoto is a compound tense that describes an action that took place before another past action in Italian language. This tense is used in narration, particularly in literary texts. To construct this tense, you combine the remote past (Passato Remoto) of the auxiliary verbs “avere” (to have) or “essere” (to be) with the past participle of the main verb. The choice of auxiliary follows the same rules as in the other composite tenses.