When I was there Venice was arising before my eyes. The Doges Palace was already magnificently recreated. It now houses a massive casino, which is connected to the rest of the six thousand-suite hotel by a copy of The Bridge of Sighs. To give you some idea of the scale of this huge resort, go up one floor and you will find a recreation of a Venetian canal. It runs for quarter of a mile and is three foot deep.
Gondoliers poll along a fleet of twenty-two gondolas.
They are unlikely to loose their way, as the boats are guided along by an underwater cable, leaving them free to concentrate on singing or exchanging banter with streetmosphere characters like Marco polo and jugglers or traders. The whole thing has an authentic touch, from the worn stone under foot in San Marco Square to the aged columns at the Doges Palace. This has been faced with stone from the same quarry as the original city. Anyone who has been to Venice will find bits of it convincing. It might not smell in summer or flood in winter, but you can be sure, like the real thing, it is swarming with American tourists.