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Monaco/Eze
Written by: Dominick A. Miserandino
Photography by: Margherita Miserandino
Monaco is more than just royalty, gambling, and glamour. No, I lied -- it pretty much is filled with royalty, gambling, and glamour.
Monaco is more than just royalty, gambling, and glamour. No, I lied -- it pretty much is filled with royalty, gambling, and glamour. When we first went to Monaco, we really didn't like it much. We went during the day, and frankly it, got on our nerves. It's the kind of city that you go to be looked at and to look at the other people, but if you're not the type of person who will buy a $1,000. dress just to look at, well, it's not a good idea.
During the day, the city is pretty, but if you make the mistake of hanging out by the casinos, well, you've made a mistake. That's redundant, but it gets the point across. Yes, go visit the casino, but when we went this time, we did it right.
First, I'll start with the night before. We arrived the night before and decided to gamble like the rich and famous. If we were in Monaco and wanted to do the people-watching thing, we should do as the Romans do...or the Monacans do.
Monaco at night is completely different from Monaco during the day. At night, it truly embodies all that the James Bond movies said it was. It has elegance, grace, ritz ... and a bit more ritz, in case you didn't get enough the first time.
We gambled a bit in the American casino, (which doesn't charge an entrance fee), and can be proud to say we won $12.
Anyway, after walking around seeing the city lit up and seeing the paparazzi, the rich, the famous and the cars that looked like they belonged in museums, we headed back to the boat.
The next morning, we first ran, not walked, but ran over to the old city and went to the Oceanographic Museum and Aquarium to see some fish and exhibits. The aquarium is world famous and is certainly worth its reputation. The aquarium isn't the largest we've seen, but it does have some fish which we've never seen before, very exotic fish from around the world.
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Oceanographic Museum and Aquarium | |
From the aquarium, we ran down to the Cathedral of Monaco and saw the beautiful church, which included the grave of Princess Grace and the rest of the royal family. The church has the intensity of older, gothic churches, but is also filled with modern art and decorations, which gives it a much different feel.
After the cathedral, we continued running through the old city. Why all of the running around? Well, the palace changes guards at 5 minutes to noon, and we wanted to make it in time.
Anyway, we saw a bit of the old city and made it to the palace with an hour to spare. So, we took the tour of the palace and the Napoleon museum.
The Palace portion is quite beautiful and done very well. Everybody gets their own digital walkman, which gives a narration in their own language throughout the palace. It's a great way to get an overview of not only the palace, but the history of the royal family here and royalty as a whole.
The Napoleonic Museum contains a massive amount of artifacts that has to be at the top of its class. Again, you're given the digital walkman and have the chance to hear the description of each one in your own language.
When we finished, it was about 11:40, so we had fifteen minutes to get in line to see the changing of the guard. I warn you, get in line early as the line was at least five people deep.
After the changing of the guard, we again started running one more time. Why were we running? Well, we wanted to catch the bus to the medieval city of Eze. There are tour buses, but I'd recommend just grabbing a city bus for a few dollars.
The ride is only 40 minutes and drops you off at the bottom of the mountain where Eze is located. Yes, I said a "mountain."
The only way to describe Eze is to think of your average renaissance/medieval faire. If you've been to one of those faires, you might have seen the little metal pewter statues of mythical scenes of villages and castles. They usually have the buildings clinging precariously onto the mountain and practically built into the mountain. You probably catch the gist of where I'm going with this.
Eze looks so unreal, you'd think Disney World is completely envious. It is so unreal, you walk around thinking somebody will jump out from behind a wall screaming, "Surprise, it's all man-made." Of course, it's not.
It's one long winding road through the city with various houses on either side. Half of the buildings are built right into the mountain side, offering incredible views of the bays and beaches of south France.
Eze is easily one of the most beautiful cities we've seen in the Mediterranean. It is so beautiful, we wanted to go back and stay there a few days, but unfortunately, we needed to run and grab the next bus back to meet the boat before it left.
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