Passage for big hill and little Dickensian in river (10)

'passage' is the definition.
(I have seen 'short passage' mean 'ritornello' so perhaps 'passage' could also mean 'ritornello')

'hill and little dickensian in river' is the wordplay.
'hill' becomes 'tor' (tor is a kind of hill).
'and' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'little dickensian' becomes 'nell' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'river' becomes 'rio' ('river' in Spanish).
'tor'+'nell'='tornell'
'tornell' going within 'rio' is 'RITORNELLO'.

'for big' is the link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.

Can you help me to learn more?