ITALY BLOG SEPTEMBER 14th, 2025 - MONACO

 

9/14/25– We get off to a late start this morning as we needed the rest. Slept in, ate breakfast and didn’t go out until 12:30pm.

The skies are a nice blue today giving us a much different impression of Monaco than before. Interestingly, it’s not very hot outside as we navigate down the hill toward the port. There’s no way we’re going to go back up to our AirBnb this way later.

Once at the water, we take the long road up to the Prince’s Palace (which is located on what they call the Rock). Here we see the yachts at Port Hurcule and have a great view of the town. When we finally reach the top we arrive just in time to see the changing of the guards.

       

With tickets already in hand, we go through security (which is pretty lax) and take our time strolling through each room and taking in the more modern touches thrown into this centuries old palace built in 1191.

Next, we continue down the path to the Cathedral of Monaco. This church holds the remains of many of the royal family including Princess Grace Kelly. A real piece of art that resembles London’s Westminster Abbey.

The old town on the Rock is quite crowded (understandably so with the nice weather and it being a weekend), so we scurry through, take in a few more views and then go back down the hill. 

Feeling a bit adventurous, we then decide to walk toward the Exotic Garden, which shows to have a complete panoramic view of the city. Unfortunately for us there are tons of stairs to maneuver which we didn’t realize when we started. The climb becomes very daunting with each step, but the GPS says eight minutes so we trust that for now.

Apparently we didn’t factor in how much rest time we’d need as it soon becomes around thirty minutes to get to the gardens only to find that it’s temporarily closed. We knew this may be the case coming in and are still able to get some photos from nearby, but not exactly to our liking.

Seeing that there’s another scenic spot about ten minutes further, we make our way up and find it to be what we’re looking for, although still not perfect as there’s a big building in our way. We do cross the Monaco/France border so that’s pretty cool.

Now it’s time to go back to our AirBnb, only problem is we don’t want to scale the hills for the fifteen minute walk back. Instead, we head down the same steps we took to get up here so we can take the lift up at the train station. Neither of us realized that this decision would kill Sharece’s back to the point of actual tears half way down. We do make it to our AirBnb in one piece but not without some battle scars. She even cooks homemade spaghetti. She is such a trooper.

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