We drove through Monte Carlo just in time to witness the town getting primed  for the Grand Prix 2012!!!  All the streets are in the process of becoming race tracks.  The Police officers look like models in Armani style  police uniforms.   We drove into Italy that night and stayed in the town of Vado Lagurie.   For dinner we ate at a beachside restaurant called “F. Paperi”, where we met Italian Harley Davidson riders and ate great pizza and pasta!  In the morning we drove from our campsite to Genoa.

Genoa

Genoa is an incredible port city, and we got a parking spot right next to a replica of Columbus’ ships. On our way to get tickets for the Genoa aquarium, Julian met a street actor covered in white paint and dressed as Columbus. Julian thought it was a statue…the movement really surprised us all.  In the Genoa aquarium we saw penguins, sharks, jellyfish, every other type of fish and sea bugs! After the aquarium, we walked as far as possible on the docks, and saw all the yachts and fishing boats.

Docks

Off to explore Genoa. In Genoa the police officers wear feathers on their caps, nearly every building has incredible architecture, and the churches are hundreds of years old.  We grabbed lunch at a restaurant overlooking the docks, pasta……yum! We still wanted some pizza, so we tracked down a pizzeria not far away, and finally got our first slice of Italian pizza! After lunch we headed to our campsite in the coast city of Mon Neglia. Our campsite was incredible! We camped on the fourth tier of a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean, what could be better? We enjoyed our view until the sun went down, lounging in our ALITE camping chairs (Form REI…which were lite enough to bring over in our luggage.

camping with a view

Then we got hungry again.  For dinner, we went to a local restaurant near the beach, Restaurant Tender,  we feasted on seafood pasta, steak, Bolognese pasta, and tiramisu! We wrapped up the day by watching car shows on our iPad, with the sound of waves crashing in the background.  This is the life.