Europe2013: Day 28 Friday 12th July Viareggio to Monaco

Sadly we left our beautiful hotel after another delicious buffet breakfast. We drove through many towns to reach the coast and travelled along highways until we reached Rapallo. From here we got on our private launch and travelled to Portofino with the warm breeze blowing. It was all we expected and more. Such a pretty place with boats, massive private yachts and shops and coloured houses coming right down to the water. We had 2 hours for shopping and the 4 of us did a bit of damage in that time.

Back on the coach for the next amazing part of the journey. We were spellbound by the roads, bridges and tunnels we travelled along. An absolute marvel. We went through a tunnel in the mountain, across a huge bridge about 200 metres high spanning the valley below, then through another tunnel. This pattern continued for most of our journey. It was astounding to think that they could achieve the seemingly impossible. We must have gone through at least 50 tunnels and a similar number of massive bridges. Make that 100!!! We were travelling very high up all the way with the highway cut into the side of the hill when we we’re going through tunnels or across bridges.

Eventually we saw Monaco looming in the distance and as we wound our way down the hills the opulence became more and more apparent. Gigi took us to see where Grace (Kelly) was buried and to the Grimaldi palace. We then went to our beautiful hotel with our rooms overlooking the Mediterranean Sea (I have no idea what sea it’s called here but that will do!!) After a very quick freshen up we were off again up some very high and winding roads (called corniches) to our restaurant for dinner. Unfortunately it was pretty hazy so not good for photos. We looked over a very old and beautiful town called Eze. Back down the hills to Monaco and the end of another day.