Classic Fiat 500 Ignition Timing - old car

Classic Fiat 500 Ignition Timing.
I renewed the entire electrical circuit of the Fiat 500, this time the entire ignition circuit. By doing so, would you believe it, the car wouldn't start. The old points where so off before and timing was set for that. By renewing, the timing was off. It was a little struggle, because it was so off that I had to remove the distributor and move it a couple of teeth, because I had to get past the maximum angle of turning the distributor. Next problem was logic, where the 1st cylinder's TDC is. I put a screwdriver in the sparkplug hole of cylinder 1, and turned the engine to find that spot, however, it turned out, it doesn't mean that it's actually going to fire there. When I had TDC (Top Dead Center) on cylinder 1, it was actually firing on cylinder 2 (!) I didn't know this, and the engine just wouldn't start and I thought I did everything right. The next day I took everything out again, and checked TDC again on cylinder 1, but then, turned the engine one more revolution for the next TDC at cylinder one, and that's where it would fire on cylinder 1 as well. And consequently the engine started! Good grief!!