The New Year’s celebration in Piazza San Marco seemed predominantly younger and a bit less joyous than those of the more recent past - thanks at least in part to some extraordinarily cheesy decor reminiscent of The Dating Game. No matter, we managed to joyously consume a traditional meal among friends (including good-luck lentils and cotecchino, or musetto), then head down to the Piazza to dance up a storm along with 90,000 of our closest friends. For better or worse, we managed to avoid all the orchestrated kissing (and the pre-event auditions held for said bacioni), and after executing compulsory SMSs, MMSs, and Buon Anno cell calls to those in absentia, moseyed on out when the sound of breaking glass on masegni (prohited, of course) became a bit too frequent. I sent silent auguri to next morning’s clean-up crew.If the idea of projected peperoncini floating up the side of the campanile with a gigantic, multicolored LED LoVE2008 stage backdrop appeals to you, you’d love to have been in Venice on New Year’s 2008. Auguri!