Back in the mid-1990s, when he started to plan Bellagio , Steve Wynn of Mirage Resorts set himself a very tall order. His goal was not to build merely the best hotel in Las Vegas - he felt he'd done that with the Mirage - or even the best hotel in the world. He wanted nothing short of the best hotel there has ever been, anywhere. Though Wynn's obsession ensured that Bellagio is a breathtaking achievement, it also demanded that it be judged according to standards that it could not conceivably meet. Seen as the latest in the long line of casinos that have set out to redefine Las Vegas, Bellagio is a triumph, but that's all it is: just another casino.
Before Bellagio , the theming in Las Vegas casinos always used to be playful - you weren't supposed to think that being in Luxor was like being in ancient Egypt, just that it was fun to pretend. Bellagio took itself more seriously. No longer was it enough to create an illusion; Bellagio , rather self-defeatingly, wanted to be real. Not only did it have to be an improvement on the Italian lakeside village for which it was named, it also had to outdo what's regarded as the greatest hotel in history, the nineteenth-century Ritz in Paris - hence the Belle Epoque late-Victorian flourishes tacked onto its understated Italian provincial elegance. And it even had to do so by somehow being more authentic than the original. The trouble is that Bellagio is not in Europe, it's in Las Vegas, and it's stuffed full of slot machines. Inlaid with jewel-like precision into marble counters, perhaps, slot machines nonetheless.
When it opened in October 1998, Bellagio was immediately recognized as being a quantum leap ahead of all its Las Vegas competitors. While it has assumed an iconic status - it was the obvious choice for the conspirators' target in the remake of Ocean's Eleven - it's also seen as something of a monument to the hubris of Steve Wynn. Its sheer opulence remains unmatched, but the Venetian has since proved that you can be this classy without being quite so po-faced and elitist about the whole thing, and combine grandeur with crowd-pleasing attractions and even, yes, a bit of old-style playfulness.
Wynn himself is no longer at the helm, Mirage Resorts having been bought up by MGM in March 2000 after a new casino venture in Biloxi, Mississippi, went disastrously wrong. Bellagio is now the jewel in the joint MGM-Mirage crown, raking in roughly thirty percent more revenue than the much larger MGM Grand , but Wynn's more obvious excesses are slowly being whittled away.
Bellagio 's main hotel block, a stately curve of blue and cream pastels, stands aloof from the Strip behind an eight-acre replica of Italy's Lake Como. The mere presence of so much water in the desert announces the wealth at Bellagio 's disposal, but the point is rubbed in every half-hour, when hundreds of submerged fountains erupt in Busby-Berkeley water ballets, choreographed with booming music and colored lights. At the foot of the hotel, the lake is bordered by a reproduction of a small Italian village. Several of the structures here are restaurants, which offer lakeshore terrace dining.
Most pedestrians approach Bellagio from its northeast corner, crossing the bridges from Caesars Palace or Bally's where Flamingo Road meets the Strip. Ponderous mosaic-floored revolving doors grant admittance not to the usual moving walkway but to the Via Bellagio , a covered mall of impossibly glamorous designer boutiques. At the far end of this plush paisley-carpeted corridor, the cacophony of the casino looms ever louder. Although only bona-fide guests are allowed to bring children aged under eighteen inside the building, there's no dress code, and the staff are unfailingly polite to all comers.
Hotel guests, by contrast, sweep up to Bellagio along a grand waterfront drive, to enter a sumptuous lobby that's deliberately distinct from the casino. Another pedestrian walkway, this time starting opposite the Aladdin , arrives close by. Within the lobby, mosaic butterflies and insects writhe across the floor, while the ceiling is filled by a brooding sort of semi-chandelier of glass flowers, made by sculptor Dale Chihuly. It's all said to be hand-blown, but "over-blown" would be closer to the mark. Even the area behind the check-in desks is themed; to reach the executive offices, disguised as a Venetian villa, the clerks have to make their way through a fully fledged Roman garden.
The lobby leads in turn to Bellagio 's real showpiece, the opulent Conservatory . Beneath a Belle Epoque canopy of copper-framed glass, a network of flowerbeds is replanted every six to eight weeks with ornate seasonal displays. Thus, fall is heralded by resplendent gold and yellow blooms surrounding a colossal cornucopia of harvest fruits, December sees Martha Stewart decorate a glittering Christmas tree, and so on. Individual spotlights can be trained on each flower, so the place is at its most spectacular at night. If you've developed a taste for Chihuly, you can buy small examples of his work from a namesake gallery at the Conservatory's far end.
To get the full benefit of Bellagio 's facilities, which include a luxurious spa and beauty salon, and an array of six superb landscaped swimming pools, you need to stay at the hotel. For any visitor to Las Vegas, however, the property as a whole makes an essential port of call. Unless you're as hung up on authenticity as Steve Wynn, swooning at the cost of its construction materials swiftly ceases to be a thrill, but there's still plenty to enjoy. For sheer ambition and energy, its major production show, the Cirque du Soleil's O , offers by far the best theatrical experience in town, while around a dozen top-quality restaurants are arrayed along the lakefront, with the astonishing Buffet tucked away further back.
The most conspicuous casualty of the MGM takeover has been the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art , near the pool at the rear. Wynn's pride and joy formerly housed his personal portfolio of Picassos and Monets, and was seen, by him more than anyone, as a bold attempt to introduce high culture to the Las Vegas scene. MGM showed no interest in keeping the collection on, and now, way outclassed by the Venetian 's twin Guggenheims, the gallery simply features lacklustre temporary exhibitions (daily 8am-10pm; $12).
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