He was impulsive, agitated, erratic. He often turned around suddenly, without paying attention, hitting whoever was near him with his backpack. He paired sentences that had no logical connection to each other. His classmates started to give him a wide berth. He became distracted in class or interrupted lessons, forcing teachers to move him to the front row. Rita Spinardi, one of his teachers, often had to snap him to attention. They called him a little straminato, a Mantuan dialect term used to describe
