JULY 16th

off to Monaco!beautiful coastline. cliffs straight into sea. buildings perched on cliffs. went to Casino Monte Carlo. 10 euro just to get in! black jack started at 4pm so only could play roulette or pokies so opted to just take in the interior. amazing! old paintings and ceiling really detailed.
parked outside casino was a black Aston Martin DB9 (thanks to NFS: Most Wanted currently one of my favourite cars!) a silver Ferrari and also two yellow lambos! saw various beautiful, expensive cars. took plenty of photos! after i'd taken plenty of shots (i wasn't the only tourist doing it either!) of about the 4th car we'd come across, jee asked if we'd come to Monaco to take pics of cars or sight see. i said the original plan was sightseeing, but the plans had changed! :-)
could have taken ride (or driven) (35 or 70 euro) along the Monaco F1 circuit in a Ferrari 355 Spider, but waiting time was 2 hours, so missed out on that unfortunately. :-(

went and checked out the palace. guards were present and standing to attention. there was a semicircle with a radius of about 15m from the palace doors sectioned off by a heavy but low slung chain. one tourist stepped over the chain and a guard stepped out of his box bearing an M-16 (time to update!) with a bayonet attached and blew his whistle a couple of times. tourist quickly stepped back over the chain!lots of old cannons and cannonballs around the palace.
missed seeing Grace Kelly's tomb unfortunately.got our passports stamped with Monaco stamps!weren't that hungry when we got home so we snacked and went for a walk along beach at night. lots of ppl still eating hearty meals at midnight!had some of the best ice cream ever. think shop was called Pinocino. had REAL pistachio and caramel.

JULY 17th

booked ticks for next coupla weeks at Nice station. ate lunch and hit the beach for a few hours. overcast but water was nice.home for dinner. then off to the net cafe for booking accommo for all the train tickets we'd booked in the morn. in Rome we'll be staying in a Korean MINBAK (like a Japanese MINSHUKU and for those of us who speak neither of those languages, it's like a dorm or hostel kinda thing and they provide breakfast and dinner too! but we'll be separated into same sex dorms, so i can drink SOJU with the lads!)

Nice was a holiday from our holiday! relaxing, not too much sight seeing. just chillin.JULY 18thon train to Genoa to head to La Spezia. between these two cities is what's known as the Cinque Terre (the 5 lands or 5 villages) which has been gaining in popularity over the last few years according to the lady who owned the apartment in Nice. it was recommended to us by Dan "BoyWonder" Gammon, bless his soul! (as i'm typing this on the train to Florence, i have a nun to either side of me!) an ozzy i spoke to in montpellier also highly recommended it.

dogs seem very popular in france. can even take them on trains and in department stores. owners don't seem to clean up after them much though. lots of shit on the streets (well in Nice anyway). gotta watch where you step!

got to la spezia and headed to hostel in Biassa. very small town located between La Spezia and Riomaggiore (the first of the Cinque Terre). Biassa was quiet (they don't have an ATM!) but beautiful and very traditional. grabbed food and water, then went for walk up winding road and thru the "backstreets" - little stairways and paths crossing between all the houses. you can get lost so easily! but that's the fun part! lots of the houses have out door pizza ovens too!
church bell near our hostel tolls on the hour twice! however many times on the hour and then again 3 min later! tolls all thru the night too!this was the first time we stayed in a shared room. two bunks. other couple came in bout 11pm. we were already in bed. hostel was very clean and well managed.Ostello Tramonti in Biassa - v. nice!"