Ah, Venice!

We only spent a few hours in Venice, but I put the tourist map up on my wall for a few years afterwards, and would watch it, wondering what it was like to live there -- really wondering what the ups and downs are, not dreaming of how perfect it must all be. Here's an article that answers some of my questions, with nice pictures to boot:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/08/venice/newman-text/1