We awoke at 4:00 am in Venice, caught a water taxi to the airport at 4:45, a flight to Rome at 6:00 am, a flight to Chicago at 11:30 am, then connected to San Francisco around 7:00 pm Chicago time, arriving in SFO around 10:00 pm Pacific Time. The truck battery had drained and the truck would not start. By the time we got AAA to come and jump start us it was after 11:00 pm.
Traffic was backed up on the Bay Bridge (construction), so we bailed on interstate 80 and took Highway 101 over the Golden Gate Bridge and on to Napa to crash. Around a 27 hr day.
But we had enough of our wits about us to remark that we had left Venice (an icon) in the morning and were driving across the Golden Gate (another) that night, all made possible by the miracle of jet travel.
We had never traveled to an airport by boat before, either. A great trip. But it was nice to get home.