Venice truly is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. While I can’t wait to go back to Venice [averagetraveller.com], I will get a chance to visit fake Venice in the very near future.
Fake Venice for the most part looks pretty authentic with cast iron (looking) lamps and stone (or is that plaster) signs with either ancient latin or some random latin-like text.
Okay, so perhaps Venice doesn’t keep all of their lamps all close together like this, and real Venice probably doesn’t even have 5 lamps that look all the same like these ones.
Fake Venice has a nice little Rialto-like bridge. Sure it isn’t covered in little shops that overcharge you for everything, but then it also isn’t covered with tourists.
And don’t forget about St Mark’s Campanile. What’s that you say? Rialto Bridge doesn’t lead to St Mark’s square? Well maybe if it did people wouldn’t keep getting lost going from one place to another. Maybe this is an improvement?
In case you didn’t already know, fake Venice can be found in front of the Venetian Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas [http://www.venetian.com]. Fake Venice doesn’t really measure up to real Venice, but they did a nice job of replicating the landmarks and style of the city.
This post was submitted to Travel Photo Thursday, a weekly collection of travel photos hosted by Budget Traveler’s Sandbox [budgettravelerssandbox.com]. Be sure to check it out!
Awesome post and pictures on one of my favorite hotels on the LV strip. This Rialto bridge is also free of graffiti. I agree – they did a good job replicating it. Now I’m curious to know what that ‘maybe’ Latin sign says.
Yes, graffiti and crumbly old building free. It would have been nice if they could have included some canal homes into the architecture.
Interesting article 🙂
I have one night to spend in Las Vegas in October before we go hiking in Bryce Canyon. Would you recommend a night here? It certainly looks lovely on the outside.
It depends on whether you like to shop or gamble and if you’ve spent much time in Vegas before. People who like to shop (or window shop) will love it because it has its own mall and is easy walking distance from Fashion Show Mall. It’s also centrally located so if you plan to expore the strip it makes a great home base.
If you like to gamble but aren’t a high roller, I suggest staying somewhere either a bit more low key or town towards the airport end of the strip (like New Yor New York, Luxor, or Mandalay Bay) because minimum bet limits will tend to be lower there and you have more purely recreational gamblers just out to have some fun.
Venetian can be pricey on weekends but it’s worth it to stay at these nicer places on weeknights when the fancier places are usually not much more expensive than the mid-range hotels.
If you have just one night and want to splurge a bit, the Wynn or Encore across the street is also fabulous. The Venetian and the newer Palazzo also have enormous suites. A few blocks away is the Bellagio with its incredible plant/garden conservatory or the glitzy new Cosmopolitan is next door.
Probably cheaper to get to “Fake Venice” than “real’ Venice…haha.
Great shots!
That might depend on how much you like to gamble…..
I was really impressed with the Venetian — it’s beautifully done (in a Vegas sort of way). I enjoyed sitting “outside” at a restaurant on the square. I haven’t been to the real Venice yet — dreaming ……
I agree that it’s one of the nicer theme hotels in Vegas. Bellagio used to be really nice but then after Steve Wynn sold it the new owners decided that a Stars and Stripes theme would fit in with the Italian architecture?!
Hmmm, looks like Fake Venice doesn’t have water. Bummer!
It has a little faux-canal with gondoliers but it looks more like a pool than a canal so I tried to keep it out of my photos!
Ah, Venice. Comcast keeps replaying “The Tourist” on one its movie channels and I keep watching it just for the images of Venice.
Pretty soon I’ll have a chance to see “Venice” in person. But, alas, it’ll be the Las Vegas version, not The-City-Like-No-Other-in-Italy.
I watched “The Tourist” for the Venice shots too, but it was distracting to me that they lost geographic continuity in editing. In one shot he’s on this side of the Grand Canal then in the next shot he’s on the other side! I know shouldn’t bother me, but I’ve only been to Venice once and it was still painfully obvious to me. My wife thinks that I’m crazy.
mmm…not quite sure what to think of it!
It looks like the real thing till you get to the last photo. Great series!