Nice and Monaco: Sights and Bites

    We left Cinque Terre by train and rode along the Mediterranean coastline for 6 gorgeous hours.  I'm sure that I will never take a more beautiful train ride.  If you are ever so inclined to take a train from Italy to France along the coast, be sure to note that you may stop through several towns that are notable enough to stop.  We stopped through Carrara and Pisa and had I known this would be the case, I may have made a plan to stop there for some marble gazing and to take our turns holding up the Leaning Tower.  You also pass through Monaco, which we did take the time to visit.

    Nice was beautiful.  We loved it, and it offered great downtime after a little too much go, go, go-but it was also the portion of our trip where I got a bit sick, so we did a little less sightseeing and eating than I had planned.

{View from our hotel}

The first night, we walked the Promenade and grabbed dinner on the outdoor patio of Les Jardins du Capitole, a sidewalk restaurant facing the water.  This is where we had the best French Onion Soup of the trip!

Our main day in Nice we spent at one of the private beaches.  We took a dip in the Mediterranean (colder and saltier than we expected) and ordered lunch and drinks.  I had my first Croque Monsieur and Kevin had a hamburger.  Oh, and here you drink rose wine.

Then we checked out Old Town.  It's so cool.  The buildings are beautiful and historic but are now inhabited by high end shops and boutiques.

The next day, we took a brief trip to Monaco.  It's about a 20 minute train ride and well worth the 10 Euros.  First we checked out the marina.

Took in the beautiful scenery.

Took some necessary tourist photos.

And found a few places that we would love to check out again one day.  

Where we stayed: Hotel Magnan

Top things to do: visit Old Town, walk the Promenade, go to the beach, take a side trip to Monaco

Where we ate: Les Jardins du Capitole, Chez Freddy

Best thing we ate: Our entire meal at Les Jardins du Capitole: caprese salad, French onion soup, steak and lamb frites, creme brulee, and chocolate mousse.