Happy Birthday, Tico!

I had a pleasant detour on my way to Slovenia last weekend. There are two train stations in Venice, and my travel buddy and I were supposed to transfer at the train station that came first. We unknowingly arrived at the wrong Venetian train station, so we had an hour to burn in VENICE before we had to catch our train to Slovenia.
We arrived in the morning, when the local people were hustling and bustling and heading off to work. We just took a walk through the little streets (no cars!). Living in Venice is very expensive, so most locals don't actually live on the touristy island part. It was a great morning and I can't wait to come back and visit all the sites there. On the way back to Bologna we stopped (this time on purpose) in Venice and were there until midnight. Venice is great but it does seem kind of like an Italian Disneyland -- and you hear English more than anything else.