【推荐1】Getting around Venice by travelling along its water ways is a delight for all visitors. Apart from offering unforgettable views of the architecture, the city's transportations are convenient, efficient, and also relatively inexpensive.

PASSES

Instead of paying EUR 7 per ride, a better option is to purchase one of ACTV's passes, which offer unlimited travel for 1 day (EUR 20), 2 days (EUR 30), 3 days (EUR 40) or 1 week (EUR 60). For children and young people between the ages of 6 and 29, ACTV offers a special "Rolling Venice" 3-day pass (EUR 29).

BY GONDOLA

Considered by many as the most symbolic feature of Venice, today gondolas circulate most often on canals in the centre of the city, carrying tourists on rides at fixed rates, which tend to be rather high. A 40-minute ride costs around EUR 100, but may be shared by as many as six passengers.

BY RENTAL BOAT

It is possible to rent a boat to travel around Venice's canals. A boating permit is not required, but you will need to pass a basic turning and docking test before being allowed to rent a boat. Rates start at EUR 30 per hour.

BY WATER TAXI

Getting around by water taxi in Venice is most costly, but can be a convenient option when you are in a hurry or need to carry a lot of luggage. The initial charge is EUR 15, then EUR 2 per minute. If you have more than one bag per passenger, there is a charge of EUR 3 for each additional piece.

Note: There are only four fueling stations for boats in Venice. Make sure you note their locations before heading out.

【推荐3】Highway safety experts have long been concerned about a possible increase of accidents and deaths as people in their 70s, 80s and beyond continued to drive. However, a recent study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that drivers age 70 and older were less likely to be involved in a car accident than those 35 to 54.

The study, published in June in The Journal of Safety Research, recorded a 43 percent drop in accidents among drivers 70 and older from 1997 to 2018. For middle-aged drivers, the decline in accidents was half that, 21 percent. Although seniors rarely drove as far as younger drivers did, older adults had better safety records per mile driven. In 2017, for the first time ever, drivers 70 and older had fewer crashes reported to the police than middle-aged drivers, the institute found.

The study’s authors credited two major factors for the improved safety record of older drivers: Seniors today are healthier than in decades past, and most are operating safer vehicle. To that, I would add, they’re helped by significant safety improvements in roadway design. For example, when stop signs or traffic lights were replaced by roundabouts at crossroads, overall crashes dropped 37 percent, injury crashes by 75 percent, and deaths by 90 percent.

Still, there’s no question that an aging mind and body can compromise driving safety. Flexibility and reaction time necessarily decline as-we get-older. Age-related health challenges that can worsen driving ability include arthritis (关节炎), hearing loss and dementia (痴呆). The most important lesson for older drivers is to acknowledge (承认) such changes and know how to make up for them if possible.

Brenda Vrkljan, a specialist at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, is doing what she can to help older adults continue to drive safely by monitoring where and when they drive and how they behave behind the wheel.

A program called Candrivee which Dr Vrkljan helped establish, is tracking the driving patterns of older adults to assess what changes might improve safety. She and colleagues are placing cameras in aging drivers’ cars to record their unsafe missteps, like failing to check mirrors before changing lanes or not stopping soon enough. Afterward, the drivers can view the video, offering them an opportunity to bear witness to their limitations.

【推荐2】A new study finds that less than seven percent of the adult population in the US have what health experts consider good cardiometabolic (心脏代谢) health.

Using information on roughly 55,000 people over the age of 20, the results show just 6.8 percent of American adults reached optimal (最佳的) levels of health in 2018. Moreover, the study found American health has been in sharp decline over the last 20 years. In 1999, one in three adults had a healthy weight. By 2018, that number fell to just one in four Americans. At the same time, three in five people were free of diabetes in 1999. By 2018, however, more than six in ten adults had the condition!

“These numbers are striking. It’s deeply problematic that in the United States, fewer than 1 in 15 adults have optimal cardiometabolic health,” says Meghan O’Hearn, one of the researchers from Tufts University. “We need a complete overhaul (革新) of our healthcare system, food system, and living conditions, because this is a crisis for everyone.”

Instead of just looking for signs of disease, the team focused their study on the signs of good, moderate, and poor cardiometabolic health. “Disease is not the only problem,” O’Hearn explains. “We don’t just want to be free of disease. We want to achieve optimal health and well-being.”

Researchers also found large health gaps between US adults of different genders, ages, and education levels. Specifically, the study found Americans with less education were half as likely to be in peak cardiometabolic health.

O’Hearn adds, “Identifying these individuals and addressing their health conditions and lifestyle early is critical to reducing growing healthcare burdens. Its impacts on national healthcare spending and the financial health of the entire economy are enormous. And these conditions are largely preventable. We have the public health and clinical interventions and policies to be able to address these problems.”

【推荐3】After many years of wearing my favorite denim long-sleeved shirt, I noticed a hole in the elbow.

“You better put a patch or something on it, or it’s going to get worse.” My husband says the second he sees me. I kindly thank him for his advice — and promptly proceed to ignore it.

I continue to get ready for my day. I reach for something at the bottom of my closet. Rip. Was that…I’m sure it’s fine. I stand up and look for something at the top of my closet. Riiiip. Um. I reach for the closet door and slide it shut. Riiiiippp. I look down at my shirt and see paper-thin scraps of fabric flapping around my arms.

This shirt was one of those that got more comfortable the more it was worn, slowly becoming soft as butter against my skin. There were warning signs that it was on its last legs, or arms. Some of the buttons were getting a bit loose. And there were those faint splatters of meals enjoyed that hadn’t quite come out in the wash. People weren’t really wearing this style anymore. But this shirt had seen a lot with me: the ups and downs of dating, saying my vows, the birth of my first child...

There are few material items in life that gain my loyalty. We’re constantly attacked by advertisements, begging us to try the latest and greatest thing. The so-called fast-fashion industry rushes to produce clothes that fit the latest, but in a week those styles are yesterday’s news. But there’s something sweet about reaching for what you know, holding tight to that thing you’re just drawn to, long past when logic tells you it might be time to let go. They represent a life well lived and the joy of being in your element.

“Is it time to let that one go?” My husband asked, as I inspected my blown-out elbows. I paused for a moment, then smiled. I grabbed a pair of scissors and cut the paper-thin fabric right above the rips. Gently, I folded the material past my elbows. I turned toward my husband to show him my new, short-sleeved shirt.

Not yet.