If Menton if the pearl of the Riviera than Monaco is the diamond. It's pretty and sparkly, its shiny and expensive and overall the entire city just seems to excude money and wealth. For these reasons, Monaco in my opinion, is a must see location in the French Riviera. In fact I don't think a trip to the area would be complete without visiting it. Something interesting is that it's actually it's own sovereign nation as well so if you do go there, you can say that you've visited a whole other country!
Monaco has its own flag and also its own form of government, which happens to be a constitutional monarchy. It's head of state is actually a prince, Prince Albert II, and he even lives in a royal castle.
Now, you may be wondering what the difference is between a country and a sovereign state, but I'll save you the trouble of googling it. I looked it up for this post and have basically come to the conclusion that for everyday communication purposes a country and a sovereign state are the same thing. They are essentially interchangeable terms. There are some minor technical differences between their meanings, but those are mainly used for academic reasons, and its all very boring so I'm not going to bother trying to explain it. Basically though, in the end, Monaco is both a country and a sovereign nation.
Okay, so now that that is all cleared up I'll get back to some more facts about the little country of Monaco. It has a total land area of only 2.1 square kilometers, which makes it the second smallest sovereign nation in the world after Vatican City.
It has a population of around 40,000 people, making it the most densely populated country in the world, and it also has the worlds smallest coastline.
It deals with its lack of space by building upwards towards the sky. When viewing it from afar, the city appears to be mostly made up of skyscrapers.
Its geographical location is within the country of France between the cities of Nice and Menton, only 8 km away from the Italian border. The official language of the country is French, which isn't surprising, but people there also tend to speak Italian, English and Monégasque, another unique form of Italian.
France has stated that it would absorb the country of Monaco should the need ever arise, specifically if the Grimaldi dynasty should ever cease to exist. In that case it would become an autonomous state within the country of France. I'm not at all surprised by this though. Monaco is one of the most expensive and wealthiest nations in the world so the question is, what country wouldn't want all that money!?!
Monaco is a major banking center of the world. The country is a tax haven, and the citizens are not required to pay income tax. 30% of its residents are millionaires and with its world famous Monte Carlo casino and gran prix racing events, the small city nation is considered to be a recreational center for the rich.
Not everything in the city costs money though and you can get a ton of enjoyment out of doing things that are completely free. These include going up to the old town, seeing the princes palace, and while up there, taking in the views. These are all "must do" activities should you wish to visit Monaco in my opinion.
Welcome to the Rock
The old town of Monaco sits up on a small mountain, which in its history was referred to as the Rock.
The old town itself isn't all that special and it doesn't seem that old really - it looks new in fact. But it has some nice buildings that are painted in bright colors, as well as some shops and restaurants. The main draw to go up there in my opinion are the views.
It's a short walk to get there, only about 20 minutes or so uphill. Or you can take an even shorter bus ride that costs about 2 euros.
After you walk through the small old town you come to the Palace Square.
On one side you will find the old town and on the other the Princes Palace. On the opposite flanks you will find some amazing views of two different harbors and the east and west sides of the city. I'll start with the main part of the city and the main harbor and work my way around because that is how we toured the area.
Directly beside the palace is a panoramic lookout platform that offers the first set of stunning views.
We were there in the evening before dusk and I recommend that time to go and catch the sunset.
On top of the platform are these old canons and piles of canon balls.
They are clearly just for show today but they suggest a very tumultuous time at some point in the city's history.
Palace of the Prince
Moving on from the viewpoint brings you to the princes palace, the official residence of Prince Albert II.
It's a somewhat modest castle that was built in 1191 as a fortress to protect and control the Monaco territory. Since the land area of the nation is so small it is the only castle to have been built in the country for the entirety of the nation's existence, which is quite unique. It has also been under the control of the same family for much of this time as well.
The Grimaldi family has been in control of Monaco and living in the castle since 1297 with only a few brief exceptions during the French Revolution and WWII. You can tell by looking at it that it has been renovated many times over since it's early beginings but in 1997 the Grimaldi family celebrated their 700 hundredth year of rulership from the same palace.
With over 500 police officers in the city Monaco has the largest police force per capita in the world. The prince also has his own gaurd called the Princes Company of Carabiniers.
Everyday at 11:55am the changing of the gaurd ceremony takes place. We were there too late in the day to catch it but I watched a video of it online. It would be cool to see in person but it was pretty boring to watch second hand, to be honest.
More Views
Moving towards the West on the other side of the castle you'll come to another panoramic view of the opposite side of the city.
Here the buildings and harbor are a little more modest than the ones in the east end of town and give the impression that this is where the basic rich live as opposed to the ultra wealthy.
In a place like Monaco though, wealth is a very relative concept.
It's sort of the difference between a $1 million dollar yacht and $30 million one, one is nicer than the other but... they both still have yachts.
There are more canons on this side as well which are different but equally as cool.
Credit to my friend for taking the photo below. It's a neat shot.
As you can see I tried to get artsy with the next one. I call it, "Looking down the barrel of a canon."
There's a walking path that brings you around the perimeter of the old town.
Eventually it connects to a public park and a little further, to a public garden.
Just a little ways further is the main cathedral.
It becomes visible through the trees as you make your approach.
Walking around the perimeter of the old town takes about 20 minutes or so. As you can see it was starting to get dark out as we made our way along.
City at Night
The last thing I would recommend though is checking out the views a second time after the sun begins to set and when the city lights start coming on.
The city is really quite stunning at night when it is all lit up.
It got dark quickly after the sun went down. We waited in this spot for about 10 minutes and then caught the last bus back to the lower city and back to the train station. From there is was a 20 minute ride back to Nice and that concluded our time in Monaco.
