Around 7 o'clock this evening, when we went out with our dog Maggie to the neighborhood pizza takeaway, a man in runner's togs and a headlamp jogged past us with a map in his hand. As we walked north from the Campo San Polo, other runners trotted down the narrow streets and passages, squeezing past pedestrians as they went.

Were they tourists on a "See Venice in Four Hours" itinerary? It's more likely that the runners were participating in a local "Race for the Cure," since we'd seen cancer-society volunteers selling oranges from street stands earlier in the day. Whoever or whatever the joggers were, they proved that you never know what you'll encounter in the campi and calli of Venice.

Here's a short video of what we saw. (If the video looks dark, there's a good reason: Venice's streets are lit well enough for pedestrians to avoid bumping into each other in the dark, but you aren't likely to mistake a Venetian back alley for the Las Vegas Strip or Times Square.)