"Italians don't like the outdoors," Vecchio had whispered when they gathered outside for a pow-wow. "That's why we're so big on architecture.

Heee!

No earthly idea what was wrong with "Admirable Solution", but if you write things like this after being told your work is depressing, I'm perfectly content to tell you your stories send me into fits of melancholy so intense I spend days in the basement covered in spiders and silverfish.