Second in a series

Re “New Mayor and Friends Are Off to Sicily”

When Thomas Small, Culver City’s new vice mayor, was 19 years old, he took a year off from college.

“I went to Italy and spent the whole year there,” said the architectural journalist, inarguably the smartest dresser on the City Council.

“It was life-changing. I feel as if I partly grew up there.”

Decades later, he still raves about the land and the irresistible countryside, vivid scenes freshly baked in his mind as if they were yesterday.

Mr. Small said it will feel like a homecoming when he, Joanna and their twins, Joey and Lyra, join Mayor Jeff Cooper’s party in paying a potential Sister Cities visit to Capo d’Orlando, Sicily.

What sparked Mr. Small’s memorable journey?

As a student at Yale, the Northern California native was studying comparative literature. When he took a course on Dante, author of the famous Inferno.

“I fell in love with Dante, and I wanted to learn Italian,” said Mr. Small.

Soon there was no doubt about his next destination.

“At 19, you are a sponge,” and a confident grasp of Italian whirled into his nimble, curious, eager mind.

Turns out, he had no choice.

“I got into situations where I found myself in Italian villages and no one spoke English. I learned Italian very quickly, very natively.”

For one period, urbane, intellectual Thomas Aujero Small worked as a shepherd.

“That was an interesting experience,” he said with a lower-key chuckle. “I actually lived with a family on their farm. I took care of their sheep and I made cheese.”

(To be continued)