Having taken both Latin and Spanish, I wonder how Romance languages evolved. It seems Spanish and Italian are closer than Latin and Italian. Might Italian (in rudimentary form) have existed, say, 2000 years ago, being spoken in Italy, while Latin was reserved for formal situations, such as inscriptions and religious occasions? (It appears Greek never went through all this.) What if this "split" had never taken place and Spain, Italy, Portugal, etc. still spoke Latin?