Today was one crazy whirl-wind of a day! We had decided to concur 3 countries in one day! Why? For no other reason than, why not?
We started bright and early, because today was the AFL Grand Final – Swans vs Doggies – sure to be an excellent game! Roisin and Max had found a pub in town that was showing the match (after much googling) and headed off in the wee hours. They had an excellent time by all reports (once they managed to get inside) with beers, chocolate croissants and even a smattering of other people đ . I had decided to stay in bed a bit longer and watched the game online while speaking to Mum and Dad on the phone, who were in Italy listening to the match on the radio! After the Doggies took home the cup, and a few tears over the respective win, loss and speeches, the girls headed back to the hotel and we set off on our ambitious day.
First we tried to visit Ăze – one of the most well known and visited hilltop towns in the south of France, especially popular for its spectacular coastal views. I say tried because once again we could not park to save our lives. It was just SO busy, we ended up trying to drive up into the town a little bit but alas, some lovely hotel parking guys told us that only residents were allowed to drive up here. So along with loads of other cars, we headed back down. We tried our luck in many different car parks and ended up pulling over and parking a distance away from Ăze and started to walk in. We decided that the parking spot we had chosen may not have been totally legitimate and headed back to the car a bit deflated.
We headed on up the coastal road to try our luck at the micro-nation Monaco (to see how the other half lived). Anticipating the potential parking problem happening again, we stopped off early (before we even reached the boarder of Monaco). We made the walk into town and became very excited as we crossed the boarder (which was nothing but a pair on lines on the ground – very secure)!! But wouldn’t you know it? As we came across the car parks we found that there was looooads of free parking spaces. Like thousands. Hahaha just our luck!
What can I say about Monaco? Squeezed into just 2.8 sq km, this constitutional monarchy might be the worldâs second-smallest country, but what it lacks in size it makes up for in attitude. A magnet for high-rollers since the early 20th century, it’s also one of the world’s most notorious tax havens (residents pay no income tax). With luxury yachts, Russian oligarchs, James Bond films, spotless sidewalks, palaces, the famous casino, race-car drivers and all kinds of over-the-top wealth on display, it certainly is an interesting stop!
We started in the small historic quarter (Monaco-Ville), a veritable open air museum,  with the Princeâs Palace, and beautiful views around every corner. After exploring the streets and eating a delicious serve of pasta and red wine (loving our wines on this road trip!!!) for lunch we headed down towards the marina. This part of town is a long way from the pretties that we have seen on our adventures: it’s basically high-rise hotels and apartment blocks, made of concrete and glass. But never-the-less, we had a great time, even managing to stumble across a “yacht show” where people dressed MUCH fancier than us were seeing the newest designs of boats for the next season. Yes. Really. We walked for a while, admiring the beauty and size of some of these machines and daydreaming about how we might one day find ourselves on one of these beasts… basically someone is going to have to find and marry a millionaire.. With solid future plans to bag a rich husband agreed upon, we headed back to the car. We only managed to get lost twice in the utterly bewildering street layout that seems solely designed to confound lowly pedestrians.
Menton – situated between Monaco and the Italian Riviera, beautifully elegant with fine foods, gardens, nearby ski slopes and almost endless sunshine. Lucky for us, our time in Menton was some of the rarely experienced dark and dreary weather. We drove through the maze of narrow medieval lanes to a beautiful view over the town before we headed back down to wander the streets of the sprawling historic centre ville and along the old harbour.
Fifty kilometres east of Europe‘s premier gambling capital lies our last stop, and third country for the day, San Remo. This sun-dappled Italian resort with a casino, a clutch of villas and lashings of Riviera-style grandeur is known colloquially as the City of Flowers for its colourful summer blooms. San Remo also stages an annual music festival (the supposed inspiration for the Eurovision Song Contest) and the world’s longest professional one-day cycling race. Our afternoon was spent beyond the manicured lawns and belle Ă©poque hotels, in the little old town centre. We spent hours in the labyrinth of twisting lanes that cascade down the hillside, looking for somewhere lovely for dinner. We stopped in a cute side street at a bar for an apĂ©ritif before heading across the road to an adorable little restaurant for dinner (although we had accidentally filled up with our apĂ©ritif). We enjoyed a beautiful last night of our road trip. While the sun was setting on the Italian rivera and we were eating out pizza and pasta, we started reminiscing about the hundreds of times we had got lost, all the thing had gone wrong, the thousands of roundabouts we had taken and the millions of laughs we had shared.
stefanysees 