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| - Most vistors to Venice make a beeline to the Piazza San Marco (St. Mark's Square). Located at the mouth of the Grand Canal, it is bordered on three sides by the Procuratie Vecchie, the Napoleonic Wing of the Procuraties and the Procuratie Nuove. On the east side of the square is the beautiful St. Mark's Basilica, the Campanile (bell tower) and a smaller Piazzetta that opens up to the Venetian Lagoon and is also bordered by the magnificent Doge's Palace. It is the lowest spot in Venice and the first to flood. When it isn't flooding, it is home to countless thousands of tourist-savvy pigeons along with museums and cafe tables.
Most visitors to Vegas find themselves in the Venetian at some point. Out front, there is a copy of the Campanile and a small lagoon. Inside, the vast shopping mall winds its way alongside a canal until it emerges into an indoor square with a roof that always remains baby blue and is accented by wispy clouds. It's the scaled-down Vegas version of St. Mark's Square. This square is lined with shops and restaurants and a cobbled-together assortment of facades that have been borrowed from the Venetian Procuraties and the Doge's Palace. It's kitschy (isn't all of the Vegas strip?), but it works. It does have two advantages over the real St. Mark's: (1) no pigeons and (2) no flooding.
Ref: http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/wPiRP76arN0NB3M1ZXXp7g?select=s6qvo9vqN2jFgV5Z-zApTQ
On my recent trip to Vegas, we had spent our first afternoon browsing through shops in the Venetian and Palazzo and were famished. The "outdoor" cafe-style dining offered by Canaletto in St. Mark's Square looked awfully good at that point and we made a beeline over there. Once seated, you have an eerie sensation that you really are outside, sitting in a piazza. Over the course of the meal, we listened to two musical ensembles performing in the square. The first was a costumed troupe masquerading as Venetians that sang a series of operatic standards by Rossini, Verdi and Mozart. They made up for their lack of vocal talent (they sounded like rejects from a local opera studio) with enthusiasm and verve. It just became a bit tiresome when they began performing their not-quite-wretched renditions of perennial Italian favorites including "O Sole Mio" and "Funiculì Funiculà." The second group, consisting of an accordion player, a flautist and a guitarist who had a very nice tenor voice, was a significant upgrade. We finished our main course listening to a fun arrangement of "La donna è mobile" from Rigoletto and knew it was time to finish dessert upon hearing "O Sole Mio" again.
Canaletto's food? Top notch! I had a pasta special in a sumptuous butter sauce and bisque reduction that was punctuated by prawns, clams, scallops and several varieties of fish. Delicioso! I sampled my wife's cannelloni which was very serviceable. A friend's salmon in lemon oil and parsley sauce was excellent. My taste buds were well-lubricated with a good glass of Chianti and I was able to smile at that second rendition of "O Sole Mio" because my palate was happily vibrating to the taste of a good tiramisu and cappuccino.
Our busy waitress did a disappearing act when it came time to settle the bill. Normally, I wouldn't think twice about this when good conversation was flowing along with wine in a relaxed setting, but several in our party were worn out and wanted to go back to their hotel rooms. When she did reappear, I smiled because my wife's and my portion of the bill only came to $85 with tip. I thought this very reasonable for a restaurant in the Venetian. Canaletto gets four stars and two thumbs up from me!
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