1. It is possible to take a small load a longer distance on a wheeled cart, but it is quite troublesome. One develops an acute awareness of the heights of steps and bridges.
2. "Since the Citty being buylt within lakes vpon litle Ilands . . . the Importing of horse is troublesome, besydes that the streetes are very narrow, so as since the Citty grewe populous and fully built, it is a rare thing to see a horse brought thether" (Fynes Moryson, Shakespeare's Europe: Unpublished Chapters of Fynes Moryson's Itinerary (London: 1903), 441). Moryson further notes (p. 467) that "the Venetians seldome or neuer come on horsbacke, and vulgar Jeasts are raysed on them for ignorance of ryding . . ." Pero Tafur perceived an absolute prohibition on beasts of burden: "No beast on four legs can enter [Venice]" (Tafur, Travels and Adventures, 167). He was at least partially correct: there had been a legal bar since 1288 to using horses as carriers within the city limits (Mazzi, "Note per una definizione della funzione viaria," 13).
3. Both of these narratives contrasted with travel in almost any other town, in which the multitude of liminal experiences involving boats or bridges were replaced by a small number of passages through gates or doorways.
4. Coryat, Coryat's Crudities, 312-13. With this elaborate and perceptually accurate discussion, it is odd that Coryat becomes confused when discussing the Piazza San Marco, describing it, the Piazetta and the precincts of the Basilica as being four streets (p. 316). Given that shortly afterwards he describes the same areas as "walkes," he seems to feel that if it seems designed to be walked along (rather than around) then it must be a street.