Summary: Vegas is Disneyland for adults.

The second floor of the Venetian has full on canal edged with boutiques, restaurants, and a mini St. Mark’s Square. The gondoliers will ferry you from one end of the canal to the other, and will even sing for you if you want them to. The two-to-three story facades are topped with a blue sky painted with fluffy white clouds.

The Eiffel tower straddles the Paris casino, which is also adjacent to the Arc de Triomphe (which is in the middle of a roundabout, of course). The shopping area is an interior corridor modeled after curved Parisian streets and edged with cafes and restaurants. The “road” consists of fake cobblestones and many trees arch overhead, reaching towards the painted blue and white sky. The Parisian road opens out into a large tree and trellis covered area, under which the casino floor is located. Later one evening, I won $45 dollars here playing roulette ($15 minimum bid, which I thought was quite high).

It felt like Italy was disproportionately represented on the strip; the Venetian (Venice), the Bellagio (Italian villa), and Caesar’s Palace (Roman Empire) are all located here. The Bellagio is home to the Cirque du Soleil show “O” (absolutely amazing!). The Luxor (Egypt-themed) is home to The Blue Man Group and a Titanic exhibit. Serendipity 3 is located right outside of Caesar’s Palace.

We rented a house a ways from the strip that had 8 bedrooms (for 19 of us relatives), a swimming pool, an 8-person card table, a pool table, and more room than we knew what to do with us. The house was perfect for us: enough room to spread out, but also the perfect size for mingling and hanging out.