...keep wondering:

like every time I go to Venice, about how utterly mad this place is.

I've been probably 30 or more times to Venice, in which ever season you have places packed with a ridiculous amout of tourists, and then, just a few steps away, you find the normal life.
People are working, cooking, educating, ironing, chatting, being happy, having sex, dying, doing the dishes and what people do when they life.
Even when they life in kind of Disney World, just without Mickey Mouse.

I'm happy finding my Venice in between.