A mere month later and the comparison finally pops into my head after a circuitous mental route. Our tour guide to Montepulciano in Italy reminded me of the Artful Dodger in “Oliver!” He looked like an adult version of him, and his eyes were always darting about.
How did I get here? My job placed me in a school with an Hispanic concentration and many parents who spoke no English. My Spanish is on par with my Italian, by the way. Nary a polyglot am I. So I’m trying to decipher some of the conversation my partner is having with parents, getting my mind squished with the Spanish/Italian lexicons. Thus, I was then thinking about the regions of Italy and how different and fiercely independent each one is, language included. By the way, the modern Italy is only about 160 years old. They jokingly say that the only thing that makes them come together as one country is soccer. Then, they are all Italians! Otherwise, they are regional in their thinking and economies. It probably was a 20-second route, but the thoughts all brought me to the tour guide.
I learned this information from the Artful Dodger. Even though I’m convinced he truly is a pickpocket on the side (we saw him the following week in a highly populated tourist area while we were on public transport and he was “dodging” in and out of crowds….) he did know a thing or two about his history.
It’s nice to know some things will return to my memory at some point in some indirect way.