As for the city of Venice, poor Venice, it’s really a beautiful hollowed out shell. It’s no longer a city. Virtually all the shops and stores that would serve the ordinary residents have been converted into restaurants, souvenir shops, and hotels. The sidewalks are so jammed it felt like my experience, years ago, in Varanasi, India where the pedestrian traffic just stopped for half an hour. You couldn’t move forward, you couldn’t move back. And, while it hasn’t reached that yet in Venice, it will eventually and then they’ll half to  pull the plug and limit entry. Really that’s the only solution. They’re already doing it at the main venues: San Marco church and the Doges’ Palace. The piazza San Marco is so full by mid day that it’s hard to cross. Fortunately my hotel was less that 50 meters around the corner; so since I’m an early riser I found some peaceful moments each morning before the hordes descended from their cruise ships. But, not earlier than the half a dozen Asian brides, their friends, stylists and photographers who helped fulfill their unique dream: to be photographed in their wedding outfits in the early dawn Venetian light. Quite a floor show each morning of my stay. 
I had a great time but I’ll never go back; three times is enough. Once just after high school with three buddies and our back packs, my God! that’s 40 years ago. Then 25 years ago with Susan. I proposed to her, ON MY KNEES, in the middle of the piazza where there is now the sounds of American show tunes, and a lot of Sinatra – his way, wafting through the air each evening at the time I did that deed. The city is gorgeous, you can’t take a bad photo, but it’s just a Italian theme park now and it’s spirit has left the building.