City Angels

Agronomy was a popular field in Italy. Even female prisoners received training in growing organic produce as part of their rehabilitation programs.

Universities also had agricultural colleges. Italy's "local eat" was something only middle- and upper-income people could afford; ordinary people still had to eat vegetables grown with pesticides, though the pesticide residue met European Union standards. Vegetables grown without even a trace of pesticide or chemical fertilizer were very expensive and were not served in school cafeterias.

Professors did not squeeze into cafeterias with students either. University dormitories were reserved for visiting scholars, while students had to find their own places to live in the city and buy groceries to cook for themselves.

Gianluca had tried it once. The food served in the cafeteria could only be described as edible. Italians liked an espresso for breakfast and another after lunch and dinner. His "cafeteria" was a coffee shop outside the university, where he had met Professor Oparo.

University teaching was widely regarded as respectable work, but the base salary at national universities was only moderately above average, nowhere near the income of those fabulously wealthy tycoons.

Generally speaking, full professors had to take on outside projects. Sometimes doctoral students did not call their teachers "Professor," but "Boss."

Albus Dumbledore's research paper on dragon blood had once been the subject of accusations, while Severus Snape's paper on improving the Wolfsbane Potion had been used by "white wizards" as a political bargaining chip.

The cultural heritage preservation Gianluca studied appeared unrelated to hydraulic engineering, but Venice was a city of water. Canals, dams, and the like were all hydraulic works. Too many people had a piece of that pie, and one misstep could get Oparo dismissed by the university. If he knew a wealthy person who cherished Venice at such a