Las Vegas, October, 2008

These photos are from a business trip to Las Vegas in October, 2008

The Venetian

So now we come to the most impressive casino on the strip, the Venetian.

As you walk south, first you come to the latest addition to the Venetian, the Palazzo.

One of the shops in the lower level of the Palazzo is this Lamborghini Las Vegas. I also got a photo of one of the cars in the window.

A lot of research went into the building of the Venetian. Thousands of photos were taken in Venice and historians from Venice were consulted.

Here is a representation of the Rialto Bridge:

Of course, it wouldn't be a complete representation of Venice without gondolas. The people who built these copies went to a workshop in Venice where they are built. They are about 2/3 scale and built by hand in the same manner as the ones in Venice.

Here is the Doge's Palace:

The next two photos show copies of some of the palaces along the Grand Canal.

Here are the columns that stand by the Piazzale San Marco next to the Grand Canal. (The Piazzale San Marco is the small square that leads to the Piazza San Marco, and goes along in front of the Doge's Palace.)

This is the Bridge of Sighs, which is the route used by prisoners to go from the Doge's Palace to the prison which stands right behind it.

Here is the campanille (bell tower) of the Basilica of Saint Mark (Basilica di San Marco.)

I went inside, went up to the second floor and took this photo of the "Rialto Bridge" from the balcony of the Doge's Palace.

Then I took this photo of the "Doge's Palace" from the Rialto Bridge.

Here is another view of the gondolas from the Rialto Bridge.

We saw curved escalators in a previous post. On the bridge (and in some other places) they had "escalators" with no steps:

And just south of the Venetian is the building that houses Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum.