No great inventor is less admired by Venitians than the cave dweller who invented the wheel. If you doubt that is true, I have for you a deal on bicycle rentals in Venice. It is an untapped monopoly. You simply need to wait for the day when the Americans with disabilities lobby builds ramps for the myriad bridges. This is not a place for wheelchairs.
The canal waters of Venice rest, when behaving, about a foot below the streets, so all bridges must arch the water with many ascending and descending steps for boats and gondolas to pass beneath. The bridges that span the Grand Canal must rise high enough for working barges to pass in four lanes. We who flock here must hold a secret hatred for our cars; it is their absence that romances us.
Venice is dense. There are no sidewalks, no parking spaces, no parking garages, no gas stations (a couple for boats, but those are on the water). Upon reflection, it feels as though the modern city gives more space to cars than to citizens.
Rod expressed his concern for the old ladies who have to schlep their daily groceries over three bridges to get home. They all seem to be over 80 and can still schlep. What’s to worry?
We toured the city by private boat and a bottle of prosecco:
Sambandar 
Your pictures, words, and movie accurately portray this unique and watery city. You can’t take a bad picture, for in any direction you can enjoy a multitude of architectural features, like windows of more shapes and sizes than Anderson Windows ever dreamed of. The pastels, the hidden alleys, the great weather! God, I wish we were there. Instead, we’re enjoying a couple of days in Wisconsin. Gavin slept over the last two nights but misses his Mom and his dog, Roxie. Stella will have a sleeping partner for the first time since we left home. She takes up less room, too!
Keep up the updates and tell Rod that if he likes his present physique he should keep away from all of that pastry.
Rod did buy a roll of some sort made with chocolate and beaded with almonds. He is unafraid of weight gain, damn him. I should have taken a close-up of the window as everything they bake is a work of art, recreated as many times as Michelangelo’s David—the world’s most celebrated penis.