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| The dancing fountains of Bellagio. |
It was winter and I’d had enough of America. Too much snow, too much cold, too many chain
stores and too much traffic. I needed a
summer in Europe. I needed to walk in
twilight past splashing fountains, to linger over a good meal at an outdoor
cafe, to feel the sun and the rustle of green tree branches overhead, to see
flowers and statuary and history and art, all placed around me, for no reason
except for their beauty. I needed to
experience the joy de vie, the wines and the haute cuisine of the French and
Italians.
And so I went to Las Vegas.
Las Vegas is the most European of all American cities. Oh certainly, it’s in a desert, surround by
stark treeless mountains. The city has
15 miles of neon lights and from space, Las Vegas is the brightest spot on
Earth. For sheer tackiness, there’s
nothing in the world that can touch it.
Or touch parts of it.
Because for every street of neon and lights and fast food,
there is another in Las Vegas where you can walk around an Italian lake, stare
at a fresco painted ceiling the size of a battleship, ride a gondola under
canal bridges, or admire what appears to be centuries old architecture.
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| Paris Las Vegas from Lago de Bellagio. |
And food? The grand
master chefs of Europe are all here.
Chefs Joel Robuchon, Pierre Gagnaire and Guy Savoy of France, Gordon
Ramsay from the U.K., Costas Spiliadis from Greece, and Jose Andres from Spain
are creating menus in Las Vegas for elaborate new visions of their original
restaurants – places of such sheer abundance, they could never be imagined in
the old country.
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| The Shops at the Forum of Caesar's Palace |
It’s all an illusion, of course. Everything in Las Vegas is fake. A mixture of cement and plastic formed into a
visible homage to recreate a fantasy version of Europe’s “greatest hits.”
And why not? In
recent years, dining, shopping and shows in Las Vegas are booming, while there
are 13,000 fewer slot machines. Every
designer of Europe has come to The Strip with stores that almost match their
countermarks on Champs de Elysee in Paris and Via Condotti in Rome. Cartier, Versace, Oscar de la Renta, Gucci,
Hermes, Dior, Channel, Louis Vuitton, Piaget, Yves Saint Laurent….they are all
here, and what’s more, they’re all close together, on the easily walkable Strip.
Wines? Le Cirque has
900 French wines. The restaurant Aureole
features an incredible wine tower that is four-stories high with 50,000
bottles. Acrobatic women in harnesses
float from the ceiling to hover up and down the wine tower retrieving
bottles.
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| The Eiffel Tower at Paris |
If Las Vegas has created a homage to Europe, what a homage
it is! And joy de vie? Nearly every hotel has a pool for “European”
(i.e., topless) sunbathing. Is there
anyplace else in America with the same European relaxed adult attitude toward
drinking, nudity and fun?
No, Las Vegas seems mesmerized by Europe (or at least a
fantasy version of it) and as a result, there are some easy ways to have a
quick European weekend in the middle of the desert.
Here’s a start:
No place on the Strip captures the ambiance of Europe better
than this 2,600-room hotel. From dining
al fresco at the authentic looking café Mon Ami Gabi to climbing to the top of
the Eiffel Tower, it’s all a bit touristy, but that’s part of the appeal. The 541-foot tall Eiffel Tower is a 50
percent replica of its sister in Paris, except that the one here in the desert
is made of steel rather than cast iron plates, which actually makes it
stronger. All 2.5 million rivets on the
Las Vegas model are fakes, just added to help create the illusion, which is
continued with dozens of statues and Disney-quality re-creations of the Arc de
Triomphe, Paris Opera House, the famous Hotel de Ville and the Alexandre III
Bridge. The extravagance is so huge, the
hotel actually wanted to build a full-scale replica of the Eiffel Tower, but it
would have interfered with flights on the nearby airport.
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| One of the many quaint dining rooms in Le Village Buffet |
Inside, it is always twilight in a quaint Parisian village
setting as you walk down Le Boulevard, a cobblestone street under a painted sky
that meanders past authentic looking storefronts selling French soaps and
perfume, wines and cheeses, jewelry, art, and of course, French fashions.
You can dine outside at Mon Ami Gabi, or with a 360-degree
view from the top of the tower. One of
the best buffets in Las Vegas is Le Village Buffet, which offers traditional
dishes from five French provinces, all in a wonderful French village
setting. Live-action stations offer
Brittany crepes made to order, tender rotisserie chicken from Burgundy, sauerkraut
and sausages of Alsace or penne a la putanesca from Provence. From seafood bouillabaisse to braised pork
belly and apples, it is all French (with some sushi thrown in for an
appetizer). Dine “outside” in a re-created town square, or inside near a fireplace in
a cottage. All the rooms are decorated
to mimic each of the regions. For
desert? Try the macaroons, fruit tarts, chocolate éclair or the acclaimed
vanilla bean crème brulee. It is the
only buffet in Las Vegas listed on OpenTable, which allows you to make
reservations and avoid lines – a common problem at popular restaurants.
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| Architectural detail in Paris |
And of course, you must go to the top of the tower for the outdoor viewing deck. A good tip – go up at twilight so that you can watch all the lights of Las Vegas come on, and have a perfect view of the next stop – the dancing waters of Bellagio.
Inspired by the village of Bellagio on the shores of Lake
Como in Northern Italy, this elegant $1.6 billion resort has 4,000 rooms – more
rooms than there are residents in the real town of Bellagio. The highlight is a green-blue, 8-acre lake
lined with a grand promenade of cypress, olive trees and pines. Marble circular viewpoints along the terrace
are the perfect spot to watch the free evening spectacle of 1,200 fountains of water.
Choreographed to music, the dancing waters shoot hundreds of feet into the
air. Perhaps it’s best not to know that
the 27 million gallon Lago di Bellagio is actually filled with “gray water,”
recycled water from the hotel’s sinks, bathtubs and showers. No matter.
With the lights on, and the far side of the lake lined with yellow
Tuscan buildings, you could easily be in Italy’s Lake District.
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| The pool at Bellagio |
On the lovely grounds of Bellagio can be found an 8.5-acre
Mediterranean-style garden filled with citrus trees and flowers and splashing
hand-carved fountains. The
marble-columned Via Bellagio is a one of the ritziest pedestrian shopping malls
in town with Prada, Armani and Fendi.
Next door to Bellagio, Caesars opened in 1966 and through
continued refurbishments has become the most opulent of the Euro-themed
casinos. It is an over-the-top, indoor
and outdoor monument to Ancient Rome.
And to decadence. On the grounds,
there are gorgeous fountains, manicured trees and hedges, tall Corinthian
columns, and outdoor cafes sitting beneath a wall of Roman statues.
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| The Shops of the Forum in Caesars Palace |
Inside, the Forum Shops have 160 stores and restaurants
along a maze of winding Italian streets that open into dramatic piazzas filled
with fountains and 20-foot high statues of Neptune, winged stallions, Venus,
Apollo, and of course, Bacchus.
Every inch is designed to take your breath away. The three-story entrance has unique circular
elevators that climb up past columns and statues of 30-foot women, all rising
out of turquoise pools of water. Painted
circular ceilings simulate a sky that changes from deep blue flecked with white
clouds to a tranquil twilight of magentas and pinks. At every turn, there are
grand archways, huge domes and marble pillars.
It’s easy to get lost, and even easier to be overwhelmed. Even more fun, watch the Roman statues
closely. Many of them move.
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| The full scale St. Mark's Campanile at the Venetian |
The Roman theme is carried over to the pools, where
waitresses dressed in togas serve frozen grapes in the Garden of the Gods Pool
Oasis, while European-style topless sunbathing is the attraction in the
adults-only Venus Pool Club.
Across the street from Caesars, the Italian fantasy
continues with a re-creation of Venice, complete with a full size replica of
St. Mark’s Campanile (bell tower) surrounded by canals filled with gondolas,
piazzas, bridges, a faux Doge’s Palace and a mini-replica of the Rialto
Bridge. There’s nothing small about the
gigantic Sistine Chapel-like fresco that fills the entire ceiling as you enter,
or the labyrinth of indoor cobblestone streets that wind along canals to the
“outdoor” cafes of Piazza San Marco.
Here, you can watch gondoliers in black-striped shirts and straw hats
sing romantic Italian songs as they ferry lovers down the canals. Cheesy?
Of course. Until you see the
two-story waterfall and marble columns of Palazzo with Manolo Blahnik for
shoes, Canali for fashionable
Italian apparel, and direct from London, Thomas Pink.
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| Piazza San Marco in the Venetian |
If the illusion is still not working for you, have another
drink. The relaxed attitude of Las Vegas means you can take any drink with
you. Any drink. From a can of beer
purchased at a liquor store, to a 20-year old glass of wine from an elegant
café, it’s completely legal to go in or out of any resort or walk on any street
carrying your drink with you. Even
Europe is not that liberal!
If you go: Another tip:
Las Vegas also allows gambling.
For complete information on the what to see, do, eat, and where to sleep
(or at least store your luggage) go to: www.vegas.com
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| The entrance to the Shops in the Forum |
Booking your
hotel: Not everyone can win all the
time, including Las Vegas hotels.
Seventeen of the top 20 largest hotels in the United States are located
here, many of them with more than 4,000 rooms.
With that many rooms and conventions coming and going, every hotel
experiences “dark” days where they have huge vacancies. When that happens, they “dump” the rooms on
Expedia and other sites for exceptionally low prices.
The challenge? The “dark”
days usually only last one day. When I
tried to book a Wed., Thurs., Fri. at the hotel Paris for this trip, I found
the Wed. night was $200, the Thurs.
night $60 and the Fri. night $130. So
an average of $130 a night – not bad for the center of the Strip. But why not just book the Thurs. night for
$60? Five minutes of looking through
Expedia, I discovered Wed. was a “dark” night for Luxor, with rooms that night
at just $70, while Fri. night at Treasure Island was just $65. To get back and forth, I would need a car,
but cars were available at Fox Rent a Car for just $14 a night.
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| The Freemont Street Experience |
By doing staying in three hotels, I saved $160, and got an
essentially free car rental for three days.
Changing rooms every night is not for everyone. But it can definitely add to the Las Vegas
experience. The Strip is four miles
long. If you stay at the Luxor on one
end, you’re not likely to see much of the Wynn on the other – and vice
versa. Move your hotel around, and over
three days you will get to know the Strip with a minimum of walking. You can stay in the hotel until noon, and
check into the next one at 3, so if you’re traveling light, it’s really not
much of an inconvenience and can add considerable to the trip. Every night is a new trip.
Parking is free and easy. Every casino has thousands of free
parking spots.
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| Caesar's Palace dates to 1966, ancient by Las Vegas standards |
Cruising the Strip by car is fun – especially at dusk -- and
having a car makes it easy to get to the Hoover Dam, about 40 minutes away, on a
day trip that is definitely worth doing.
A car also makes it easy to get to the Fremont Street
Experience and the new and truly excellent Mob Museum. This three floor museum explores the history
of the mob in America, detailing the more than 1,000 hits that have taken
place. They even have a piece of the
actual wall where Al Capone carried out the St. Valentine’s Massacre, machine
gunning down seven gangsters at one time.
You can still see the machine gun slugs in the wall. There are exhibits, artifacts, videos and
interactive exhibits of everything from an electric chair to the barber chair where
a mobster was shot down.
Great fun, and very illuminating about the early history of
Las Vegas and how it was at one time controlled by the mob.
