Celebrating 50 Years In Monaco!

Andy turned 50 years old this month. We have come to the conclusion that we don’t need or want any more stuff. What we really want are memories and experiences. I still remember going to Sedona, Arizona to celebrate my 40th birthday and we wanted to do something similar for Andy’s birthday. We decided to go to Monaco. We both like cars and boats and the weekend weather forecast was 75 and sunny, so away we went! The drive took us along the Italian coast and it was less than 4 hours.

We checked into the Fairmont Monte Carlo and had a sea view room. We have stayed at the Fairmont in Bermuda and they never disappoint. The service, food and location was great! We enjoyed sitting on our balcony watching the yachts and the hotel is located on the famous Formula One hairpin turn so we could watch the luxury cars. We see a lot of really nice cars where we live in Italy (Range Rovers, Maseratis, and the occasional red Ferrari) but in Monaco we saw Bentleys, Aston Martins, Rolls Royces and every kind of high-end sports car imaginable.

We ordered room service for dinner for many reasons. One, we could eat on our balcony and enjoy the sea view. Two, we didn’t want to get dressed up for dinner (the hotel is very fancy even though the dress code was “smart casual” which I have no idea what that even means!). Three, we were so tired of walking that we just wanted to relax! The first night we ordered sandwiches and a caesar salad. Andy said it was the best 39 euro burger he has ever had! The second night we ordered from Nobu because I figured it was our only chance to eat at a Nobu Restaurant but with further research I realized that there is one in Milan. Oh, well.

We visited the Prince’s Palace to tour the palace and see the changing of the guard and we went to the Oceanographic Museum. We really enjoyed visiting The Private Collection of Antique Cars of H.S.H Prince Rainier III.

Here are some pictures that we thought were funny…

On the way home we stopped in Nice, France. Andy and I keep track of the states in the US and countries that we have visited. The rules to count them are that we have to be there together and we have to have a sit down meal. It does not count it if we never leave the airport or just get fast food for the car ride as we pass through. So in order to count France, we had to have lunch. Nice was really busy and warm for October. I cannot even imagine how busy it is during peak season!