He observed that the two in very different ways were the most faithful to Latin: Spanish in the preservation of certain conjugations and ordering of pronouns and Italian for the spirit of expression. He concluded that of the two, Italian was the superior.
Having begun teaching myself to read Italian better, it's akin to an American beginning to drive on UK roads. Almost everything is the same, yet so very different in mental ways beyond the obvious side of the road/side of the car for the driver (or how the conjugations and articles are used).
I happen to like the sounds of certain Latin American Spanish dialects better than standard Tuscan Italian, but that's just familiarity.
As for Duolingo, decided to test it after reading comments here. Interesting take on what Rosetta Stone uses to reinforce vocabulary, but I find myself wishing it would move faster through the vocabulary and that there were languages other than the main Romance and Germanic languages on there.
Je suis méchant.