It's not that bad, he wants to say. How bad can it be if like eighty percent of people alive are farmers? It is, by Ezio's reckoning, apparently easier to learn to farm than it is to learn to read. But she's got the gist of that herself; they'll just read about it. The library is bound to have something.

"It's a good plan," he agrees. "This city once held tens of thousands, dolcezza, if every one only held enough food to feed us for a day, we would still be safe for years to come. We should be swift, but not hasty."