Day 8 - A Night In Las Vegas

After all the relaxing in the pool and jacuzzi we made full use of our free snacks and open bar on the Concierge level at The Palazzo. 


Then off to the bright lights again.

I mentioned previously that The Palazzo has fantastic decorations all through the public areas as well as in the suites.

Outside of the casino, there are huge corridors of expensive shops and fountains and in this case a rather large Stars & Stripes.

This is one of the main entrances to The Venetian with classic Italian art all over the walls and ceilings.

I understand that this artwork is all genuine and was painted by expert Italian craftspeople.

Once on the 1st floor shopping area the main shopping streets are lined with canals just like the real Venice but in this case without the smell and with air conditioning and a permanent daylight sky - it never becomes night time here as the ceiling is (very realistically) painted.

For a few dollars you can take a trip on a gondola around the canals - and having been in the real Venice last October and seen the prices the real gondoliers take - I think its actually cheaper in Las Vegas!

The outside of the Venetian is a scaled version of some of the main architecture from Venice, and very nicely lit up at night.

Back at The Bellagio out favourite pastime is watching the fountain show outside the hotel - but as you will have seen earlier the hotel is another Italian themed palace.

The ceiling of the main reception area is made from specially hand crafted Murano glass - which is the island opposite Venice in Italy, and where intricate glass pieces have been made for centuries.

This piece is called "Fiori di Como" and is 60 feet long.

This is typical of the artwork throughout the hotel which has insisted on nothing but the best in fixtures and fittings.

The hotel originally cost $1.6 billion when it was opened in 1998 but has had another $500 million spent on it since then.

No visit to Las Vegas is complete without seeing the fountains of The Bellagio. 

There are over 1,200 fountains in the lake which itself covers over 8 acres of land.

The fountains can blast water over 450 feet in the air - but the beauty is that the whole display is choreographed to music which plays through over 200 speakers around the hotel.

There is music sung by such varied artists as Pavarotti and Sinatra and it is one of our favourite (free) things to do in Las Vegas.

The shows play every 15 minutes in the evening and the blasts of the big fountain can be heard all the way along The Strip.

Video doesn't really do this show justice because the fountain display is over 1,000 feet wide - but for the sake of our own memories I will post some video later.

Meantime here are some pictures

Opposite The Bellagio is Paris (get the European theme to these hotels?) which has a 1/2 scale replica of The Eiffel Tower and a 1/2 size replica of The Arc de Triumphe at it's front door.

The view from the top of the tower is fantastic allowing you to see all the way up and down Las Vegas Boulevard in both directions as well as the grid pattern of lights as Las Vegas stretches out into the desert.

And that ends another night in Fabulous Las Vegas!