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It finally struck me, only a few weeks ago, that Venice promises to deliver something I’ve wanted in my life for many years now: the good urban lifestyle without automobiles.

True enough, there will be in Venice rumbling internal-combustion engines in the public watercraft.

But nothing like the incessant din of a car-clogged thoroughfare. Nor even (vehicles closer to my heart) the whining and putt-putting of a swarm of scooters, all’italiana, taking off after they’ve crept up en masse to the front of the traffic waiting for a light to turn green.

A beautiful, walkable city, an entire city, with no cars!

Sure enough, exiting the train station, we see swarms of pedestrians (whining! puff-puffing! en masse!), buses with rudders instead of rubber tires . . . and a city on a very human scale. Not to mention a beauty in the ageless buildings that is enchanting from the first glimpse.

After our good fortune in having chosen an exceptionally quiet apartment and location in Bologna, we were ready for some disappointment in a city that might not have traffic noise but would surely have crowd roar.

The location of our next apartment was, on first impression, again great good fortune: whisper-quiet streets in our Dorsoduro neighborhood, with a rooftop terrace where the clang of a dropped fork seems to carry to every neighbor’s ears.

We’ve found it again: tranquility in an urban setting.

It took only a couple of mosquitoes at bedtime to bring Christine’s tranquility to a wretched end.

(continued in part II)