No better place to celebrate my 31st birthday than Venice! Even in November, tourists flock the narrow, cobblestone streets along the Grand Canal buying postcards, scarves, hats, Murano glass, fake Fendi handbags and carnival masks. Most extraordinary is the Gothic, multi-colored marble, mosaic-covered ceilings of Cathedral di San Marco, where St. Mark’s body miraculously appeared when the cathedral was consecrated in 1094. Later via a gondola, we toured some of Venice’s 150 waterways and canals that flood homes, businesses, restaurants, cafés and shops often enough for some to speculate on when Venice will sink. I will bet not in my lifetime.