"‘ They’ are the rest of Italy, who don’t care about Venice, and also the local Greens. ‘Us’ means those who want Venice to still exist fifty years from now. ‘They’ can always identify a hundred infractions in any plan we come up with, and file papers in Brussels to stop any progress, and then congratulate themselves on being so virtuous." She put her hands together in the prayerful style of a little girl going to her First Communion.