*Check out previous posting for updated pics!
Saturday, July 30th 2011
As much as we wanted to stay in Cinque for longer, it was time for Venice. Before leaving Riomaggiore, we bought some tomato and mozzarella sandwiches and latte machiatos (sp?) and enjoyed them on the marina. If any of you are planning a trip to Italy, you absolutely have to visit Cinque Terre, and give yourself some time to enjoy it. It is truly one of a kind.
Our train to Venice had two changes. On a stopover in Florence we had about an hour to eat lunch, and then we missed our next train. Yes, it is possible to do that. It was most definitely one of the top three kick myself moments of the trip thus far; another one being a senseless purchase of a purse I didn't really need on our first night in Rome. Sana did it too though! Since we were delayed an hour, we decided we may as well get some cappuccino.
Mapless in Venice is not a good way to go. We took the waterbus (free of charge because of a kind lady who didn't want to waste her tickets) to the closest stop to our B&B. After walking for what seemed like an eternity with backpacks on, we found it! Like a diamond in the rough...okay, that's not possible actually because we were in Venice. Let's scrap that sentence and say it was like a red rose in a garden of pink roses? Our B&B was nice. Pretty clean and cozy, but the furniture was just awful. The carpet was dark red and the furniture was off-white and gold with oldschool patterns on it. It looked like it was once owned by a 150 year old woman. I guess the owner was going for an antique look, and he succeeded but it was kind of creepy. Pretty tired from the traveling and missing trains and all, we ate dinner by a canal and slept relatively early.
Sunday, July 31st 2011
Our single day in Venice was relaxing. We walked to piazza st Marco, got scolded in Italian for playing with souvenirs at the carts, made some Murano glass purchases, ate pizza on a canal bridge and witnessed a gondola traffic jam. We were so relaxed that we even lay down by a bridge and tanned. This was a good indicator that we were ready for the beaches of the French riviera. Our last meal in Italy had to be classic spaghetti. It was absolutely delicious, obviously. During our meal, we attempted to take photos depicting a recreation of the scene in Eat Pray Love where Julia Roberts was eating spaghetti and enjoying every moment of it. The only difference was that we were in Venice as opposed to Rome.
Monday, August 1 2011
The next morning, a very early morning, we booked it to the waterbus at 8:08am (easy to remember because of Far East Movement). As I was wrote that last sentence, I broke out into song and Sana shut me down. Our journey to Antibes was crazy; three train changes and one of them only had like a 7 minute buffer. We knew if the last train was retardo (late), we would be screwedo. And it was, but our mad dash skills and another compensating train delay, made it all okay. I must throw in that while we were waiting for that particular train on the Genova platform, I dared Sana to yell "retardo" at the top of her lungs. (We have a silly dares and rewards system going). She did it. I was thoroughly unimpressed by the reaction, or lack thereof, of our platform companions.
On that last train to Antibes, our stop at the Monaco station brought a very interesting crowd into the train. Fancy shmancy! There were two pretty blonde ladies with a Filipino baby. I spent most of the train ride trying to figure out their situation. I quickly assumed they were partners and they had adopted the baby but since the train ride was quite long, my imagination kept wandering. About a minute before our stop, I realized there was a Filipino man behind me. Turns out he was the dad.
When we arrived in Antibes, I immediately put my French skills to use to find our way to our villa. It was really far from the station, but really close to the beach! After resorting to taking a cab, we arrived at Villa Fabulite, a very pretty hotel with lots of greenery, and mosquitoes. Turns out the hotel was also famous for it's restaurant, and non-guests came to eat there as well. We were starving, and pretty much stranded (the Cap d'Antibes is far from the actual city itself) so we ate there too. I had a huge sea bass for dinner, and although I rarely order fish, I enjoyed this one! After eating our dinner, and being eaten by mosquitoes, dammit, we went to sleep.
Tuesday, August 2nd 2011
There's not too much to say about our day in Antibes; it was super relaxing. We ate breakfast at the villa, after which the chef brought some lovely and random surprises: tropical fruit, and swiss chocolate. We also met some other guests from Russia who were super nice. We relaxed at the beach for a few hours and it was heavenly. There were so many cute little French kids running around and enjoying the water. After the beach, we went to a small grocery store and bought some baguette and brie for lunch, and walked around the cap and up a few hills to see a view of Antibes. We like views. I think it is one of my favourite parts of traveling, because it almost always requires lots of walking/climbing and using maps, and it is tiring, but the reward is so great. The properties in the area were ridiculous. All gated up and surrounded by so much fancy greenery, and each mansion had its own name, ex. Le chateau d'Olivier.
At night after dinner and a couple of more dessert surprises from the chef, (so random but so awesome), we wanted to check out the nightlife in Antibes but we knew it would be pretty hard because we were so far from the main part of the city. So we decided to just stroll around the beach for a bit before bed. One of our fellow guests at the villa that we had met earlier had a sweet rental car and offered to drive us to town. He became known as our Russian saviour because he even gave us a ride to the Picasso museum today before our departure from Antibes. Amazing. The Picasso museum was cool; I like staring at abstract art and trying to figure it out. The two paintings I liked most were 'La joie de vivre' by Picasso, and 'Grand concert' by Nicolas de Staël.
From the Picasso museum, we went straight to the train station and made our way to Monaco! It was stunning. Enough said. Okay, I will give you a bit more of a description than that. The city looked very clean and well-kept. All the buildings looked brand new and had nice orangey and pinky colours. They had fancy balconies and detailed roofs and window sills. We loved the feel of the city. We walked over to the Jardin exotique hoping to see some fancy flowers and stuff, but were greeted with sharp cacti. Only cacti. It was still really cool because beyond the cacti we could see views of the whole city and harbor. After the cacti, we took a bus over to Monaco ville, where we saw the old village, souvenir shops, and a killer view of the city. Turn around from the view, and there is the palais du Prince. We were there to witness a changing of guards, which was very organized and proper as expected. That is until Sana whistled at one of the guards, unable to hold back. We also really wanted to see the Monte Carlo casino, so we got back on the bus and headed there. It was surrounded by fancy fountains and pretty cars.
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