Cinque Terre was a given in Italy, and at some point I noted on a map that geographically it wasn't a huge distance away from Monaco - perhaps we might be able to go there after Cinque Terre, and the proximity to Nice also gave a handy place to then head to the UK from. Sasha liked this suggestion, so we settled upon it being part of our plan. Squeezing time for it and Nice into our plan in the end was a bit harder. In the end, we settled upon a half-day visit to Monaco from Nice because surely that would be enough - its not very big, and mainly we were going there to see what we could and tick another country off of our list.
Given this is how we approached Monaco, how things panned out were a surprise to me!
Monaco is a short train journey from Nice, but originally our idea - well, probably more my idea was to go from Cinque Terre to Monaco, store our bags for some hours there while we explored, and then head onwards to Nice. Sasha didn't seem to like that idea and preferred to go from Cinque Terre to Nice, check in at our accom and drop our bags there before heading back out to Monaco and spending the rest of the day there. I preferred my idea because I felt like Sasha's way cost precious time; Sasha didn't like my idea because she thought it cost precious money, and that whatever we'd save on train travel by not travelling into Nice and then backtracking to Monaco would be lost or more on baggage storage costs. In the end the answer was simple - we go with Sasha's idea, because there is no baggage storage at Monaco's station nor anywhere else nearby.
By the time we'd arrived in Nice, we'd made the executive decision not to go to Monaco that afternoon as planned - the weather was going to be a bit gross (but better the next day), it would be later than we had originally planned by the time we'd actually manage to get there, and we just didn't feel enthusiastic enough to do it. So instead we wandered through Nice, with the intention of going to Monaco the next morning for lunch, and come back to Nice for dinner (where it would be cheaper).
So getting there was simply a matter of going to the train station the next morning, getting our tickets, then trying to figure out when the next train to Monaco was (wasn't easy, we had to ask) and also which platform it left from. When the train did come (it was starting in Nice), there was a huge crowd on the platform and we raced on to get ourselves some decent seats - we did wonder if we were in a 1st class section for a while as the seats seemed nicer than the others and no one really wanted to sit near us despite lots of the other kinds of seats filling up quick, but it was just the change in decor and they were indeed 2nd class seats! The ride to Monaco was no more than half an hour, before we hopped off inside the station which is built in a big tunnel in a hill. No customs, no nothing to mark that we were now in another country - but we were indeed here!
Having exited the station which threw us out on the side of the hill, we walked our way down towards the waterfront. We knew that the Monaco Grand Prix had been days beforehand, but it was still a bit of a surprise (for some reason) to find that a lot of the stadiums and course barriers were still being dismantled post-racing. So, we could see where the racing took place but could actually walk on the racetrack. We carried along until we hit the downhill edge of the old city, walked a way into it and then caught a bus from the old city through most of Monaco to the Botanic Gardens at the top of the city. There was a great view here, although we opted not to go into the Botanic Gardens (for which there was a fee). Having had our fill up the top, we caught a bus most of the way down but got off by the other side of the harbour and walked down to where the little harbour ferry crosses - there were yachts parked here for a yacht race starting the next day also. The small harbour ferry is in some respects a bit pathetic, its electric-powered and looks very "industrial" so it was quite at a contrast to the expensive luxury boats and Private Yachts that called the harbour home. The most bizarre looking of the Private Yachts wasn't in the harbour, but floating offshore outside of it - I wondered for a while if it might be Monaco's sole Naval vessel, but no its just a very bizarre and stealth looking Private Yacht (called "A", as a few of them are).
Having crossed the harbour we walked back into the Old City and had a good wander around, ending up outside the Royal Palace. We decided to make our way back down to the waterfront harbour and visit Monaco's only brewery, which brews German-inspired beers. This was located right next to the Grand Prix track and in fact the seat we got was on the inside of the Grand Prix track barrier - meaning we were drinking beer on the Grand Prix circuit! Finding that their meal prices were actually quite reasonable and having some hours earlier abandoned the notion of going back to Nice that afternoon/evening for an explore in favour of more time in Monaco, we also had dinner there.
Following dinner we wandered up to the Monte Carlo Casino - we were dressed in such a manner that we probably should be able to get in, but we were lugging bags that might get us stopped. In the end, we lost our nerve to attempt to go in and instead joined a small crowd of people watching the clientele of the Casino come and go. A flash car would show up, either drop its people off at the door or everyone would hop out, and the car would then be parked up by either its driver or a Casino Valet. The fanciest cars were parked by the Valet in 8 reserved parks, 4 either side of the main entrance. Mostly the clientele was groups of men all dressed up in either suit attire or wearing bizarre clashing colours, and if there were women in the party they were usually dressed to the nines, mostly wearing black and wearing very tall heels. The best part was when a very tired looking beige 70's/80's model Fiat 500 showed up, parked up outside of the entrance and its occupants hopped out. He was fairly young looking, had straggly shoulder-length frizzy hair, and was wearing an iridescent purple jacket with a black pattern on it, Jeans and some sports shoes. Out from the other side, the whole time on a phone, was a very disinterested looking 6ft blonde wearing a black dress and big heels. What got me though was the way the valets were falling over themselves to rush to be the one to take care of this decrepit looking car - the guy in the iridescent jacket was either very important, very wealthy, or both. I wondered if they might have been a member of the Monaco Royal Family but a cursory search says that he wasn't. My favourite bit - they parked this Fiat 500 in one of the 8 special parks in front of the Casino, although admittedly one of the ones furthest away from the entrance! We had a bit of a close-up look at the Fiat and it wasn't exactly done up or refurbished, it was even showing signs of rust around the front windscreen.
Having had enough, we wandered back to a bus stop where we ended up having a bit of a wait for a bus back to the train station. While waiting, we kept counting the fancy cars we were seeing - how many Porsche's, Maserati's, Lamborghini's, Ferrari's and there was even a Tesla. The bus took us around the part of Monaco we hadn't made it to, and in fact one of the bus stops was just outside the border in France - before taking us back into Monaco and to the train station.
While waiting for the next train, we had a go at a bike-pedal self-charge cellphone station (took a bit of effort to try and charge your phone, you'd only want to do it if you were desperate!) and then onto the train back to Nice in the darkness.
We fully anticipated, especially from looking up online ahead of time that food and drink in Monaco would be quite pricey, given that everything else seemed to be. As it transpired, things were not as bad as we feared! For lunch we headed to an indoor market food hall aiming for a particular place which had good ratings, only to find it was closed that day and for the past few days. Not really enamoured with the other venues in the place, we headed outside to check out the Spar Supermarket just outside and see if there was anything potential there. This turned out to be no ordinary supermarket - aside for having some substantial pre-packaged salads with a hefty discount on sale, they had chilled wine in the "takeaway" drinks cabinet and there were tables and chairs outside for customers to use. There was even microwaves for customers to use to heat up their food, and the guy at the checkout gave us two plastic glasses to go with the 375ml bottle of Rose wine that we got from the drinks cabinet. We had a very pleasant lunch sitting at one of the tables and chairs in the market courtyard outside the Spar, so much so we even bought another 375ml bottle of chilled Rose to top it off with!
We never originally anticipated staying in Monaco long enough to have dinner there, but that became apparent as we were enjoying ourselves and decided to stick around. We were looking at potentially trying one of the restaurants in the Old City as they had reasonably-priced set menu's, but we decided to try out the only brewery in Monaco for a drink or two first. Their beer was German-inspired, but has diverged a bit and although nice, I personally like the actual Bavarian beer its based on better. But we were enjoying our time at the brewery, and their menu was actually decently priced too - so we ended up staying there for dinner and having the steak with fries, plus another half-litre beer to go along with it! I tried their light, dark and seasonal beers while there. Monegasque beer is definitely better than that from some countries!
Summing Up
Much like Nice, I can't see a real reason to go back even though I liked it a lot. We covered the country comprehensively in my opinion so unless we happen to be in the area and have the time, I doubt we'll ever get back there - certainly I can't see us purposely making the effort to go there again. We're not into Grand Prix, and we're not into gambling in a big way, we don't have a private yacht and we don't have oodles of money - so not much reason to make a revisit really! But I definitely recommend making the effort to visit if you ever get the chance.