I don't care much for facts in fiction, as uncomfortable to me as a bed made out of spaghetti, but the idea of two countries reflected in each other through shape is very interesting.
I've already started a short based on this called,
Mirror Man, Mirror Me (title is taken from a Captain Beefheart song). Here's the opening.
How was it possible that he'd grown a full beard overnight? In the mirror a different man stared back at him. A man unlike any Nathanial had imagined himself to be.
Of course it could end up as nothing at all to do with New Zealand or Italy, I can't make that kind of decision, the story does that for me
