If Venice didn't have a bridge, Europe would be an island

The quote is from the Venetian poet Mario Stefani, but what is Venice without Peggy Guggenheim?

Photo from Peggy Guggenheim's former home, Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, on the Grand Canal in Venice (December 2006 on a rainy day). In front, Alberto Giacometti's sculpture 'Woman Walking' from 1932; in the window, the task master who stopped me from taking more pictures; and Marino Marini's pathbreaking sculpture 'The Angel of the City' from 1948.

Mario Stefani's quote is taken from John Berendt's brilliant book on Venice 'The City of Falling Angels.' I first thought that 'The City of Falling Angels' was a novel. In fact, it is a work of non-fiction, but its rich cast of characters might provide enough material for several novels. Mario Stefani, famous for his erotic poems, who hanged himself in 2001 is only one cast. Others include Olga, the former mistress of Ezra Pound, an artisan glass blower, the Rat-Man, pigeon exterminators, several old Venetian aristocrats and some U.S. American hypocrites and know-it-alls.