While we didn’t set an alarm, we were all acutely aware that the earlier we left Zurich, the less traffic we’d have to fight… and the more time we’d have for adventures along the way to our next stop!
In the end, everyone woke up fairly early, and before long we had the car packed and were on the road.
The first challenge of the day: getting out of Zurich unscathed. Thankfully, the drive went relatively smoothly, though I snap a photo of us driving in the tram lane yet again. It’s so disconcerting (when you’re not a local)!
The weather was… not ideal. It was drizzly and foggy yet again. We couldn’t see much of the scenery at first, but one thing was very clear: there were a lot of tunnels. I had never really considered how many tunnels we’d drive through, but in a country that’s full of mountains, it makes sense!!
Even with the fog, you could tell the landscape was changing constantly: rolling hills, steep cliffs, and we’d catch little glimpses of villages tucked onto grassy knolls. It was gorgeous.
And then we hit the Gotthard Road Tunnel which is a whopping sixteen kilometers long! (Fun fact: the Gotthard Rail Tunnel is 57 km, making it the longest railway tunnel in the world. 57 km bored through solid rock is insane!)
When we entered the tunnel, everything was dismal and overcast.
But when we came out the other side…
Sunshine!! Blue skies!!! THE ALPS!!!
We all collectively (literally) said: “Wow.”
It was one of my favourite moments of the entire trip. We had kind of resigned ourselves to gloomy weather, despite the forecast promising sunshine further south. Coming out of the tunnel felt like we were entering a completely different world.
We couldn’t stop taking photos. Of course, the photos don’t even come close to doing the scenery justice. There’s something magical about seeing mountains like that in real life. The scale and grandeur is awe-inspiring. It especially warmed my heart to hear how enthusiastic the kids were about seeing these views.
Before long we were crossing the border into Italy. It was lunchtime, so we decided to look for authentic Italian food. I did a quick Google search and found a spot with great reviews—Ristorante Pizzeria L’Officina in Arenzano—which supposedly also came with a view.
Getting there was quite an adventure!
We got off the highway and immediately found ourselves navigating twisty, narrow roads. We were all wondering what would happen if another car came barreling toward us. (I have no idea, and we didn’t want to find out.) The drive was slightly terrifying, but exhilarating in a way, especially since I didn’t have to drive.
The restaurant had just opened for the day and we figured since it was in such an obscure spot, it would stay relatively quiet, but the parking lot was full by the time we left. It was clearly a beloved spot by both locals and tourists.
Belle declared it the best pizza of her life and John ranked his pasta among the best he’s ever had (a seafood gnocchi). The views were incredible. Also, food in Italy is noticeably cheaper, which our frugal spirits very much appreciated.
What goes up must come down. Eeks it was tight. But we made it!
Back on the road, I resumed my role as navigator which, for the most part, went well. Except for one small mistake where I sent us onto the wrong highway and added about 20 minutes drive time and a small toll fee. Oops. That was my only major navigation fail of the whole trip, so I’ll take it.
In Italy, the tunnels gave way to something else: bridges. So many bridges. And not just normal bridges, these were high, sweeping bridges. Definitely unlike anything I’ve driven on before.
We debated whether to go straight to Monaco or stop somewhere in France. In the end, Menton seemed too good to pass up. It’s known as the “Pearl of the French Riviera” and gets about 315 days of sunshine a year. Sign me up!
I did about 20 minutes of research on my phone before deciding to go ahead with this stop, so I didn’t have much of a plan. Look at me flying by the seat of my pants! (Yes, it DID stress me out, why do you ask?)
We found a parking garage and, ironically, my strongest memory of Menton is that parking garage.
It was amazing.
First, there was a display at the entrance showing how many spots were available (not unusual), but inside, every single parking space had a light above it—green for empty, red for occupied. You could instantly see where to go without the need to circle around or guess. GENIUS. Does this exist in other places?
But wait, it gets even better.
Menton is famous for lemon production (they even host a lemon festival every year), and they were piping a subtle, fresh lemon scent into the garage. It wasn’t artificial smelling or overpowering, just light and clean and citrusy. AND they were playing classical music over the speakers.
It was the bougiest parking garage I’ve ever experienced and I loved it.
Finding a bathroom was significantly less glamorous. After wandering around trying to find public facilities (which were marked on signs but ended up being closed), we went to McDonald’s, buying a drink just so we could get the bathroom code for a very sketchy bathroom.
Menton itself is absolutely stunning. Brightly-coloured buildings, seaside views, and a very relaxed Riviera vibe. I wish we’d had more time to wander, because what we saw made it clear it’s worth a longer visit.
After touring the marina (mostly in search of an elusive bathroom), we made our way to one of the most iconic spots in town, Les Rampes Saint-Michel. The bright yellow stairs are the most recognizable photo op in town and they’re even prettier in person.
Basilique Saint-Michel Archange de Menton is at the top of the stairs.
We wandered through the streets for a little while and stopped for gelato.
I opted for lemon (leaning into the local theme, plus this gelato shop was famous for their lemon and lavender flavours). It was gross!!!! Bitter and grainy and just, UGH. To me it didn’t even taste like lemon, it was just an overpowering sour flavour. The rest of the family chose different flavours and theirs were fine. Pro tip: skip the lemon gelato (at least from Tutti Fruitti).
Then it was time to head to Monaco.
This is the view from our rental. You can see the tops of the grandstands for the F1 race!
Parking was a bit of a nuisance (there was parking on the street but it was free at bizarre times, so we had to set alarms to pay for it—thankfully via an app so we didn’t have to physically go back to the parking space—periodically throughout the day), but we eventually sorted it out. That’s always the tradeoff with short stays… you spend time figuring out logistics just in time to leave again.
Our apartment was incredibly dated, but in retrospect I have zero regrets. We had originally planned to stay in Nice, which would have been lovely, but staying in Monaco gave us so much more time to explore.
After settling in, we headed out for a quick first look around.
I’ll admit I didn’t know that much about Monaco before visiting. I knew it was small. I knew it was a haven for super yachts. And, as a Formula 1 fan, I knew about the famous street circuit.
What I hadn’t really thought about were the stairs.
Monaco is built into a cliff, which means getting anywhere involves going up (or down) a LOT of stairs. When I saw our apartment was only 1 km from the center, I was thrilled. What I didn’t factor in was that it was 1 km downhill/uphill.
We climbed an absurd number of stairs in those 36 hours. They do have elevators and escalators and I read online that if you see someone climbing stairs they’re a tourist not a local. There’s even an app that shows you the location of the elevators, but for the most part I found them difficult to find and not intuitive so we walked the majority of the stairs we came across.
A few random tidbits:
- Monaco is the second-smallest country in the world (after Vatican City).
- It’s incredibly dense with about 40,000 people packed into just 2 square kilometers.
- Internet was patchy; there’s supposed to be free Wifi but that never worked properly for us and our data plans were very hit and miss. I’m not sure if it’s because of being walled in by mountains, but if you’re visiting Monaco, you’ve now been warned!
- Locals aren’t allowed to gamble in the Monte Carlo Casino! It’s actually illegal. I had no idea.
Speaking of the famous casino, that’s where we navigated to the first night. Monaco was the stop in Europe chosen by Indy, exclusively because of his love of fancy cars. Monte Carlo/Hotel de Paris Monte-Carlo (which can set you back €2,000+/night) is THE PLACE to spot luxury cars, and it didn’t disappoint.
After car watching for a while, we were exhausted. It’s also a pretty dressy part of town, and we looked like tourists that had been in a car for 7 hours. Instead of a fancy dinner, we went in search of a grocery store, which was surprisingly hard to find open in the evening.
When we finally found one, we grabbed a few basics. While checking out, I did what I always do and casually looked at what the person ahead of me was buying. Perrier, strawberries, some sliced meat… nothing particular unusual. It came to just over €45. He paid by card.
John had noticed he was speaking Portuguese and, unbeknownst to me, was eyeing him closely.
And then the guy turned toward us as he grabbed his bags.
It was GABRIEL BORTOLETO. (He’s from Brazil, hence the Portuguese conversation.)
If you’re not into Formula 1, that name will mean nothing. But he’s an F1 driver. Just casually buying strawberries and sparkling water in front of us at the grocery store!!!!!!
We didn’t ask for a photo (it all happened too fast, and he probably wouldn’t have appreciated being ambushed mid-grocery run), but when we left, we saw him sitting outside the store in his car. (An Audi, which makes sense since he’s a driver for the new Audi team.)
As huge F1 fans, we had joked about how cool it would be to see a driver in Monaco and we did. We’re pretty sure we spotted another driver the next day, but that’s a story for later…
We made our way back to the apartment and threw together a questionable dinner of ramen and fruit.
Not exactly gourmet, but it did the job. And the view from our balcony was nice 🙂
Your turn.
- Have you ever wound up behind a celebrity in line?
- Have you ever gambled at a casino? (That’s a big no from me.)
- Has anyone else seen red/green lights in a parking garage?
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