Sweet Nothings

If you were lucky enough to be at my recent wedding, here is the stuff I wrote about each of the seven casinos that we used as tables during the evening meal. If you weren't there, you probably won't have a clue what's going on, but you're welcome to have a read anyway. Opened : December 18, 1993 Cost to build:  $1 billion Rooms : 6,852 Total gaming space : 15,930 sq m Slot machines : 2500+ Ben and Becky stayed at the Grand for three nights. We were impressed with the size of the room, which was bigger than both our current and former flats, and had a TV which spun around so you could watch it from either the bed or the sofa (to be fair, Ben was more interested in this than Becky). We also paid to see Bon Jovi at the Garden Arena, but then the Grand Canyon re-opened so we ended up going there instead. We mostly don’t regret it. The MGM originally had a Wizard of Oz theme, including an ‘Emerald City’ attraction complete with the Yellow Brick Road and a...

They do say that the best way to see Venice is not to plan a proper route and just explore the maze of narrow streets, canals and alleyways not knowing what you're about to stumble upon. My problem is that I'm not very good at aimless wandering. For example, upon exiting the station on day 1, I resolved to follow the Grand Canal as it looped around to the Rialto bridge before heading down to the main Piazza San Marco (St Mark's Square to you); within 10 minutes I was frantically breaking out the guidebook after following the wrong canal. On day 2, after a few minutes of making my casual way through the sidestreets towards the Accademia gallery, I got antsy that I didn't know exactly where I was and ended up following the ubiquitous signs down to the Rialto instead. Even though going via there was a much longer route. Sigh. Still, you're never entirely sure what's what in Venice, wherein lies its charm. Away from San Marco and the obvious tourist traps (and t...