Fireballs blaze through the violet sky, lighting faces in the shadows. Glittering sea-green mists cool the air as a primal drumbeat quickens the heart.
Viva Las Vegas!
So what if the Mirage’s exploding volcano is an illusion? For sheer spectacle, there’s no place like Vegas. The best thrills flare outside the casinos. And sin-free sightseeing along the Strip’s three-mile core is free.
If you go:
877-VISIT-LV (847-4858)
visitlasvegas.com
Last December, the South Seas-themed casino’s extravaganza erupted anew with a $25 million redesign by Grateful Dead drummer/ethnomusicologist Mickey Hart, tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain and “multisensory experience” wizards at WET Design. Hidden beneath a three-acre lagoon, 120 “FireShooters” launch Vulcan-worthy flames 60 feet while heat pulses toward walkways and five dozen sound cabinets ricochet rhythms around the mechanical volcanic field. Paris, the south-Strip resort, glitters with downsized replicas of the Arc de Triomphe, Louvre and a half-scale, 50-story Eiffel Tower.
After strolling New York-New York’s shrunken Brooklyn Bridge, I jog to the Bellagio’s eight-acre lake to catch the Dancing Fountains. The water is a flat sheet of quicksilver. Suddenly, an aqua arpeggio breaks the surface as hundreds of covert nozzles propel water up to 24 stories high. The jets sway, shimmy and crisscross to the rhythm and intensity of Copland’s “Hoe Down,” a Pavarotti aria and Elvis belting “Viva Las Vegas.”
In the faux Roman village of the Caesars Palace Forum Shops, domed ceilings display a blue sky that changes with passing time. Highlights include replicas of the Trevi and Triton fountains, gleaming spiral escalator, 50,000-gallon aquarium and an animatronic adaptation of “The Fall of Atlantis,” which finds Atlas deciding which of his bickering, murderous kids should inherit his kingdom.
What’s Vegas without showgirls, or showboys? “The Sirens of TI,” a free crowd-stopper performed nightly in Treasure Island’s harbor, sizzles with pyrotechnics, diving stunts, risqu? repartee and mast-dancing as the sirens capture hunky pirates.
At the waterfall junction of the Palazzo and Venetian resorts, alabastered Romanesque statues come to life and gesture in slo-mo to classical music.
Should the artifice leave you craving for nature, Vegas has that too — indoors. Anytime day or night, you can stroll the Bellagio’s botanical gardens. This indoor Eden of color, fragrance and fresh oxygen is like a free spa treatment.
With recession-priced air/lodging packages, now’s the time to find proof in Vegas that some of the best things in life are free.
Reach Robin Tierney at [email protected].
