End of the Plague in Venice

Last weekend I went to Venice to celebrate the end of the Black Plague. All in all, we were about double the 50000 survivors back in the day. Party boats with ghetto blasters cruise the canals until late in the evening, until so many are 'parked' in the laguna it looks like an absolute parking lot!

Near midnight, we are then treated to a full 1hr. fireworks display, the likes of which I've only seen at Disneyland (although their time, like 20mins.).
The only glitch was when the Leonardo-inspired boat bridge we crossed to have lunch in Giudecca lost a juncture, but, those efficient Venetians allowed us to board boats back for free.

We ate & drank well (in Venice??!!!), even after the evil restaurateur took us for tourists and told us, alá Seinfeld Soup Man that first we couldn't sit down (he sat about 4 tables of locals after us), and then that we could only order pizza. The pizza was excellent, but, as we finished, he brought all the Venetian specialties we had originally ordered to the next table over.

Ya gotta believe it's a tourism-based economy...Keep the faith.