It was our last night in France until the end of our trip in Chamonix and Lyon. We were a little concerned since we have to start from the beginning not being able to understand a word of Italian or know their road rules. I guess that's all part of the adventure though. We left the apartment in Nice reluctantly since it has been a nice place to be and we really appreciated the dishwasher! Although I would have swapped it out for a proper oven any day as I had many bananas that needed to be made into a loaf. It took quite a few trips to get our stuff down the miniature elevator and into the car. Handing back to the keys to Colettes husband we started our drive to Monaco around the coast. We stopped at a few viewing points along the way looking back at the small fishing villages of Villefranche-sur-mer (pictured left) and Beaulieu-sur-mer. It reminded us of the time we spent in Russell in the Bay of Islands NZ and we wished we had ventured around here yesterday to swim and potter in the afternoon. We also passed through the town of Ezes perched on the cliff side that had a heaving market going on that we wern't even able to find a carpark to check it out for ourselves. The drive to Monaco was only half an hour and getting into the country itself was such a mission. There was a tunnel connecting it to the French side and you wound round in a big circle like you were heading to the Center of the earth. Popping out of the tunnel Google Maps took it's time to reconnect to the internet and we ended up driving back over the French border. Although the only way we knew this was we got a text from our UK phone company telling us about the French mobile rates. We had heard rumours that only people with Monaco number plates could enter the city so Lew was antsy to get the car into a parking spot. The building we chose was close to the water front and certainly wasn't intended to be a parking structure since it was narrow with tonnes of pillars you had to dodge. Our tiny car barely fitting in the parks and we were surprised to find a Hummer wedged in there also. Since it was a beautiful sunny day we walked from La Condamine where the car was parked to the Monte Carlo Bay Casino past the more famous of the two the Monte Carlo Casino. On the way we were admiring the super yachts but also despising the kind of people that move to this place since it is a tax haven. Lew follows this ex pro skier Jon Olsen on YouTube who is originally from Norway but spends his time in Monaco and also Marbella, Spain.  He is filthy rich from his skiing days and now his Youtube following and we were talking about how Norway is very socialist which is focusing more on equality for all. He grew up in this country who paid for him to attend school etc and we were annoyed that he wasn't still living in Norway adding his wealth back into the system which helped him become who he is today. I'm sure there are many many examples of this happening and it just seems wrong to avade tax no matter how much we complain about it when you see a large chunk of your hard earned cash being taken from you. We are a bit in two minds about it really, half supportive but half against it.

Continuing our walk we ended up in Larvotto Beach which had much finer stones that looked more like soft sand than the large pebbles we had yesterday. Lew actually managed to recognise Jons house which is right behind the beach but we knew neither him or his gf Yani were home since the vlogs from yesterday were all in Spain. We did see Yani's dad and little brother eating outside in one of the restaurants and he occasionally makes an appearance on the vlogs also. Outside one hotel we passed we were admiring this old Porsche when 5 different Ferrari pulled up and we watched as the valet drivers tried to get them to back into some parks on the curb. It was very funny since they clearly don't reverse very well and they can't see out the back windscreen so there were a few small toots from the driver behind to make sure they didn't crash into each other. On the way back towards the car we came across a museum that was free since it was Sunday and we thought we could have a look. It was called the Villa Sauber and housed this strange art that seemed to be focusing on a urinal. The security guard basically followed as around and I felt like saying to him that there is a minuscule chance we will steal a painting of a urinal so he may as well sit down. We were slightly embarrassed that we just walked in, very briefly looked around and went back out again before we wasted too much more time.

I had made a note about the visiting the Prince of Monaco's car collection which was a 15 minutes walk past the carparking we were in. I was starting to grisle from hunger and Lew managed to shut me up for another hour by feeding me a muesli bar in his backpack. One tip I will tell you is to make sure you thing your student ID with you when you travel! Mine had 2015 on it but they are still accepting it and to get into this car collection I paid €3 ($4.90 NZD) as opposed to the €6.50 ($10.70) Lew had to pay. The museum was started by Prince Rainer III who ruled the Principality of Monaco for 56 years before his death in 2005 where his only son Prince Albert II took over. You may have heard of this guy before as Prince Rainer III is famously known for his marriage to American actress Grace Kelly. Rainer also expanded the revenue of Monaco as in 1949 when he ascended the throne gambling accounted for 95% of Monaco's revenue and now it only accounts for3%. Today the rest of the revenue is from tourism accounting for 15% and from businesses being lured in by low business taxes accounting for 75% of the principalities income. The car collection boasted mostly old cars and by that I mean carriages meant to be pulled by horses, some very old Rolls Royces, original Fords and other American cars. There were a few classic Ferraris, a Porsche, and some F1 championship cars from Louis Hamilton and Kimi Räikkönen. Whilst Lew was a tad disappointed that the cars were very old (he prefers just "old" as in after 1960s+ since he knows a bit more about them) I was amazed by these very old cars since I had never seen them before and couldn't believe how large some of these Rolls Royces were. After taking a sufficient amount of photographs we walked back to the underground parking and grabbed out some pasta and sandwiches for the road.

We wound up the hillside leaving Monaco and back into France where we got onto the autoroute crossing over the France/Italy border by going in one tunnel and out the other side into another country. We knew they would shove us straight into a toll booth since we were in their autoroute and sure enough we were right. We drove the entire way to Camogli which didn't take very long despite actually being 2.5 hours and when we took the exit off we had forgotten we still had to pay a toll. The booths were differently to the French ones and we didn't know where they even wanted you to put your ticket or your card. The Italian driver behind us started tooting which he has done to the car in front of us also which I initially took as his frustration that we were all taking so long. I was absolutely about to turn around and pull the finger at him but as I did turn I could see him miming to Lewis where to put the card/ticket and smiling and giving him the thumbs up. We decided on that moment we liked the Italians already. Other than the fact they charged us €22 ($36 NZD) to drive on their road which we were completely forced to do since it took us 2.5 hours drive instead of 6 hours avoiding tolls. Plus the road was rather impressive as it sailed above the townships nestled in the hill side with sail boats in the distance. It also had at least 100 tunnels slicing through the mountains and it was easily the most consecutive tunnels we have ever been through. They became rather annoying though as you lost cell signal and the radio became static each time you entered one. Camogli itself was what we were expecting to see in the Cinque Terre tomorrow but were surprised to see that here since we only booked a night here to break up the driving. Our Airbnb was on this very narrow one way street down the side of the mountain which we initially missed and had to drive by again. We drove down it slowly looking for the number of the house only to realise we probably wern't going to be able to turn around unless we wanted to do a 20 point turn. Lew decided to reverse the entire way back up the hill somehow managing not to take the side mirrors off as I didn't realise he was backing looking over his shoulder and not using the mirrors like I do. The car really did sound like it was breaking in reverse and certainly didn't like Lew forcing it up a steep hill.

Getting the car parked I walked down to find the house number which was a lot easier walking. Our host Cristina was there to meet me and said we were in the right spot with our car despite saying it would cost €5 ($8 NZD) per day, she had organised and paid that for us. Lew and I grabbed the gear out of the car and hauled it down the road into the property. It was a bed and breakfast called Toms which is Cristinas 17 year old dog. The poor thing has certainly seen better days and is now blind, deaf and his legs are giving way making him fall all over the place. It reminded me of my Nannies dogs who have also been on their last legs. She showed us into the room which had an incredible view over the city and ocean below us. She had a couple of friends over but directed us to where we could walk down into town to watch the sunset and get some dinner. It took us about 20 minutes to walk down many many small stairs - the annoying type where it's too large to do double but it's like doing pony steps if you use each one. The town was certainly like nothing I have ever seen before with stunning multi coloured buildings and a small port of fishing boats tied up. The afternoon sun was setting projecting its light on the building highlighting their beauty even more. We walked down to the point where Lew decided to fly his drone but it didn't go so well as a mass amount of seagulls came out of nowhere and started dive bombing it. I had walked up the peninsula to take photos and looking back I saw a swarm of seagulls surrounding it, I knew it wasn't a good sign! He might have got a small amount of decent footage or maybe something we can look back and laugh at with seagulls trying to initiate it as one of their own. We opted for a time lapse instead which wasn't so interesting for the wildlife in the area. Since Lew had been craving pizza the entire time we were in France and was just holding out until we crossed the border I google searched the best pizza restaurant in town. We ended up at this place called Osteria delle Pance which means 7 stomaches in English according to Cristina. We had heard the Italians eat late and we could see that since we were the only people in the restaurant. The sun was setting fast but the place had an outside area with tables and we figured we would brave the cold to soak up the view. Of course we ordered pizza and they had a good deal where for €15 ($24.60 NZD) you get a pizza, a drink and some sorbet. We both ended up choosing the same pizza, mine without cheese of course and Lew was stoked to get a Peroni and I tried some of their sparkling wine. It said you only got 1/4 glass of wine so I wasn't expecting much but the waiter came out with an entire carafe of it! The sorbet was more liquid but it certainly was more tasty than any gelato we have tasted before. Finishing dinner around 8pm I was feeling just a tad tipsy since Lew made me finish my wine, helping me only a little as I threatened him that he would be carrying me up the hill at this rate!

We had come prepared to walk in the dark this time and both armed with head torches we made our way up the hundreds of steep stairs to the BnB. Cristina was still up and welcomed us back into the house. We showered and then stayed in our room to work out our plane for the Cinque Terre. Lew tried to book parking but it wouldn't accept his card so we would just have to sort it tomorrow. We had a few ideas of hikes and hoped to get in tomorrow around 1pm so we can enjoy the afternoon. It did feel a little awkward being in the BnB and poor Tom didn't exactly make the place smell that pleasant. I'm sure if any of your have ever had a dog on its last legs your will know the particular smell they have. We left the windows open over night to try and get rid of it without much luck. Well so far everything about Italy has been very favourable! Fingers crossed it stays that way!