One of my favorite hotels in Las Vegas is the Venetian. It is so beautiful - perfectly proportioned in relation to its surroundings. I don't have to walk half a mile under the burning Las Vegas sun just to get to the entrance of the casino/hotel/shops and it's not right on top of the Strip, either. These photographs were all taken from various angels at the Venetian - great views! Great spaces! Interesting architecture and the design successfully evokes 15th century Venice through the lens of 20th-21st century technology. This photo looks out across one end of the "lagoon" toward Steve Wynn's original Las Vegas gamble - The Mirage Hotel. Yesterday morning as Mr. Don and I were leaving out hotel on the shuttle to the airport at 6:00 a.m., the sun was just hitting the gold panelling on The Mirage and it was a blinding sight, indeed!
Across the street and just a little way down (or is that up?) the Strip from the Venetian is the ever-growing and now totally overwhelming Caesar's Palace, some of which can be seen in this photo to the right of the Venetian's bell tower. Alas, Caesar's has passed from kitschy to grotesque. I remember the Caesar's of 1980 when Linda Musil, one of my old high school chums, and I travelled to Las Vegas for the very first time and I won a $75 jackpot on a quarter slot machine! That was in the old old days when machines still spewed out actual cash and bells and whistles went off and you needed the large plastic containers to haul away your winnings! Goddess, that was fun! Linda and I were staying at the Flamingo at the time, which also still exists - although that 1980 hotel complex is also long gone. Alas, so is that Casesar's Palace of my fond memories, never to return. While today the gardens at Caesar's are lovely (as they currently exist - they may be gone next month or next year, who knows?), I think Caesar's has gotten too big to be adequately managed.
But - back to the Venetian -- I believe its location on the Las Vegas strip is the best of all the current hotels. It is in the center of everything! Here is a photo looking in the opposite direction from the two photos above. Here you can seen one part of the Treasure Island Hotel complex. Alas, Mr. Don and I were not able to visit Treasure Island - and if the shows in the lagoon are still going on, we missed all of them, despite being on the Strip at all different times of the day and evening. I wonder if due to cost cuts the four-times-a-day battles between the Pirates and the British Navy are still taking place? I hope they are, but we never saw so much as a hint of crowds piling up on the "rope" styled walkway next to TI's lagoon area where the battle took place in prior years. But the ships are still there - so maybe our timing was just bad.
I must give a plug to the shops at Caesar's Palace - I love window-shopping there. I think Caesar's has the best mix of high-end and not-so-high-end shops. Alas, we did not get to visit the shops there this trip. I do hope that by the time of our next visit to Las Vegas, whenever that may be, that the shops there have not transformed themselves into cookie-cutter imitations of the high end (and very empty, totally devoid of customers) shops that I saw at Encore, the Wynn, and the Palazzo (other than Bauman Rare Books - tres cool store).
Here are a couple of photos of architectural details from the Venetian. One is a close-up of a facade; one is a shot taken from an inner outdoor gallery that is pleasantly shaded from that scorching sun - I swear the temperature is a good 20 degrees cooler in the deep shade of that walkway. While there, I could well imagine being transported back in time to an equally scorching Italian sun being down on Venice, and being equally thankful for the deep shade of that covered terrace as I moved from the Las Vegas Strip or the Via Venicia along a busy canal toward my ultimate destination (an air-conditioned casino).
What I found fascinating is that the "Moorish" details of some of the building elements were faithfully reproduced - for instance, in the form of the arches and their openings, while the "four-leaf clover" of the earlier Romanesque architectural period were also present. The different column-tops were also fascinating -- not sure what they're called in architectural language. There was also an abundance of dart-and-egg detailing, serpentine shaped columnal decorations and enough tile-work to no doubt pave a walk-way from Las Vegas to New York City!
Goddess symbols also abounded, but one has to hunt for them a little bit :) I cannot help but wonder if the designers who put this complex together were really focusing on all of these details, or if it was just lucky happenstance that it all came together "just so." Perhaps it doesn't matter, as long as the final result was so wonderful. I love lingering at the Venetian.
One of my favorite hotels in Las Vegas is the Venetian. It is so beautiful - perfectly proportioned in relation to its surroundings. I don't have to walk half a mile under the burning Las Vegas sun just to get to the entrance of the casino/hotel/shops and it's not right on top of the Strip, either. These photographs were all taken from various angels at the Venetian - great views! Great spaces! Interesting architecture and the design successfully evokes 15th century Venice through the lens of 20th-21st century technology. This photo looks out across one end of the "lagoon" toward Steve Wynn's original Las Vegas gamble - The Mirage Hotel. Yesterday morning as Mr. Don and I were leaving out hotel on the shuttle to the airport at 6:00 a.m., the sun was just hitting the gold panelling on The Mirage and it was a blinding sight, indeed!
Across the street and just a little way down (or is that up?) the Strip from the Venetian is the ever-growing and now totally overwhelming Caesar's Palace, some of which can be seen in this photo to the right of the Venetian's bell tower. Alas, Caesar's has passed from kitschy to grotesque. I remember the Caesar's of 1980 when Linda Musil, one of my old high school chums, and I travelled to Las Vegas for the very first time and I won a $75 jackpot on a quarter slot machine! That was in the old old days when machines still spewed out actual cash and bells and whistles went off and you needed the large plastic containers to haul away your winnings! Goddess, that was fun! Linda and I were staying at the Flamingo at the time, which also still exists - although that 1980 hotel complex is also long gone. Alas, so is that Casesar's Palace of my fond memories, never to return. While today the gardens at Caesar's are lovely (as they currently exist - they may be gone next month or next year, who knows?), I think Caesar's has gotten too big to be adequately managed.
But - back to the Venetian -- I believe its location on the Las Vegas strip is the best of all the current hotels. It is in the center of everything! Here is a photo looking in the opposite direction from the two photos above. Here you can seen one part of the Treasure Island Hotel complex. Alas, Mr. Don and I were not able to visit Treasure Island - and if the shows in the lagoon are still going on, we missed all of them, despite being on the Strip at all different times of the day and evening. I wonder if due to cost cuts the four-times-a-day battles between the Pirates and the British Navy are still taking place? I hope they are, but we never saw so much as a hint of crowds piling up on the "rope" styled walkway next to TI's lagoon area where the battle took place in prior years. But the ships are still there - so maybe our timing was just bad.
I must give a plug to the shops at Caesar's Palace - I love window-shopping there. I think Caesar's has the best mix of high-end and not-so-high-end shops. Alas, we did not get to visit the shops there this trip. I do hope that by the time of our next visit to Las Vegas, whenever that may be, that the shops there have not transformed themselves into cookie-cutter imitations of the high end (and very empty, totally devoid of customers) shops that I saw at Encore, the Wynn, and the Palazzo (other than Bauman Rare Books - tres cool store).
Here are a couple of photos of architectural details from the Venetian. One is a close-up of a facade; one is a shot taken from an inner outdoor gallery that is pleasantly shaded from that scorching sun - I swear the temperature is a good 20 degrees cooler in the deep shade of that walkway. While there, I could well imagine being transported back in time to an equally scorching Italian sun being down on Venice, and being equally thankful for the deep shade of that covered terrace as I moved from the Las Vegas Strip or the Via Venicia along a busy canal toward my ultimate destination (an air-conditioned casino).
What I found fascinating is that the "Moorish" details of some of the building elements were faithfully reproduced - for instance, in the form of the arches and their openings, while the "four-leaf clover" of the earlier Romanesque architectural period were also present. The different column-tops were also fascinating -- not sure what they're called in architectural language. There was also an abundance of dart-and-egg detailing, serpentine shaped columnal decorations and enough tile-work to no doubt pave a walk-way from Las Vegas to New York City!
Goddess symbols also abounded, but one has to hunt for them a little bit :) I cannot help but wonder if the designers who put this complex together were really focusing on all of these details, or if it was just lucky happenstance that it all came together "just so." Perhaps it doesn't matter, as long as the final result was so wonderful. I love lingering at the Venetian.
Anyway, back to the optical illusions. The first shot is at the main entry into the hotel lobby where guests check-in. It is a bit dark - I'm too tired tonight to do photo-stuff to try and lighten it a bit - anyway, the spectacular astrolabe is not the primary subject of the photo, it's the floor! Take a look at it. dondelion's photo captured a lady walking gingerly across what appear to be raised planks!
The second photo was taken at the end of a long promenade from the check-in area toward the casino. On one side are exclusive shoppes, on the other side are windows looking out onto the grounds of the hotel and the busy sight of limos, cars and taxis pulling in and out. Where the casino begins, the marble flooring ends and plush carpeting takes over. Shades of Escher! You also get a very good view of the lushly painted vaulted ceiling over the promenade.
A couple of dondelion's photos from The Venetian.
This is "St. Martin's Square" inside the Venetian Hotel. This shot was taken on Christmas night, after we'd seen "Phantom of the Opera." We had 10:30 PM dinner reservations at a restaurant on the "Square" and were reconnoitering the territory and taking in some of the local entertainment prior to supper. There was a musical group playing (off camera). The "Square" was packed with people (I've never seen it otherwise during my prior visits) and dondelion chose this shot toward a corner of the "Square" to show the skyline and realistic "architecture"The sky was tending toward "sunset" at the time (it changes on a regular schedule from sunrise to sunset).
Another shot of "St. Martin's Square," this one toward the opposite end of the "Square." The sky is deepening in color toward evening and the "Square" is packed with revelers! Our restaurant is on the right (outdoor seating), marked with the small oval yellow sign on the wrought-iron fencing. The lights and fencing on the right mark off one of Wolfgang Puck's restaurants.
