Thanks to all for your dedication and vigilance to our forum. We are staying mainland side the first night in a hotel near the airport to assemble bikes, get our bearings, and navigate to Venice proper. In Venice, we are at an apartment for two nights in the Cannaregio district the "Jewish Ghetto". It works out great that our stay is literally only 700 meters from the train station. Using the Google Maps street view, I was able to see a couple little foot bridges, but not much else. A couple narrow places and lots of people! I always come to our fabulous forum first when it comes to this kind of information. I am a believer that if you can find out ahead of time, that is a good thing. I have sent a message to the person arranging our stay at the apartment regarding this and hope to hear back soon. I used "sneaking" more as a figure of speech, and do my best to respect the people and their laws. If anyone is interested, I will post back here as I learn more.