Part Two - Our travels outside of Lugano...Monaco and Menton

On Friday, my mom and I headed to Italy. I had discovered a Relais Chateau Hotel called Il Sole di Ranco in a small town on the shore of Lake Maggiore that looked quaint and welcoming. I was thinking it would kind of be on our way to Monaco, but it ended up adding about an hour to our drive. Luckily, my mom is very used to driving stick and drives just as fast as the Italians. Once she got used to passing on the left and getting the heck over when a Porsche comes speeding up behind you, we looked almost like locals. The first hotel ended up being a little quiet for our liking. Ranco is a VERY small town and pretty sleepy in the Fall. We were picturing people enjoying the lake during the summer, but this time of year the only people we saw were the Italian men fishing off the docks, most likely catching our dinner. We managed to find an open restaurant and had our first serving of branzino, a seabass type of fish that we heard comes from the Mediterranean and also off the coast of Portugal in the Atlantic. The next morning, after a delightful breakfast (my first scrambled eggs in two months) we headed to Monaco. It was about a three hour drive and the first hour was through big fields of nothing but corn, cows, and hay. For the drive, we borrowed my friend's GPS, which was literally a life saver. Once we hit Genova, which is along the Mediterranean coastline, the terrain became much more intense and my mom started driving with her hands at 10 and 2, which is definitely a rarity. Once she got used to the winding roads, with tunnels every 500 meters, she was a natural. I enjoyed the spectacular views while she concentrated on the driving. We arrived at Le Meredian our hotel early afternoon, walking down to the main part of Monte Carlo and enjoyed our first drink overlooking the harbor. From there, we walked around the area of the city near the casino, where you could literally people watch for hours on end. We saw at least 100 Ferraris over a few days. After orienting ourselves, we continued to wander around the city, did a little shopping and then headed back to relax on the balcony and enjoy a nice bottle of Italian wine we brought from Italy. For dinner the first night, we went to Cafe de Paris for the experience of a typical French Brasserie. It is located right in the center of the main Plaza, next door to the Casino and Hotel de Paris. We had yet another amazing meal... scampi, salmon, and some more great wine. That night we went to have drinks at the famous bar at the Hotel Metropole. We decided to enjoy some champagne to celebrate our birthdays, and stopped at only one glass there, since they were 26 euros each...yikes! And this was the inexpensive glass, not Dom Perignon. The next day, we hiked up to the Palace, watched the changing of the guards and then explored the Old Town. We gave in and had a gelato at this cute Italian gelateria, of course. It was actually very worth it! Having traveled in Italy enough, I know what it's like getting bad gelato. This was superb! As sad as it may seem, one (even though there were many) of the great parts of staying at a nice hotel was the fact that we could work out in a gym.  I really miss being able to workout, running is pretty much the extent of my activity here.  Our last night there, we decided to venture into a neighboring French town called Menton. The drive took about 15 minutes, but it was worth it just for the views. I had planned ahead and researched some NY Times restaurants, which have so far turned out to be great. We tried one place that was of course closed when we were hoping to eat, but then found the second one on the list called Petit Port. It was definitely worth the wait. I feel funny that I keep describing our meals, but you know that traveling all revolves around your next meal, right?? So in Menton, it was like blind ordering, since it was all in French. Kristi, we really could have used your skills here! We ordered what we thought was an appetizer and two entrees (branzino and salmon) from the specials. Instead we ended up with two huge appetizer salads, once with raw artichokes, fresh parmesan and greens (amazing) and then another with greens, ruby red grapefruit, three types of fish (salmon, tuna, and we think branzino, raw) and fresh parmesan. They were both to die for, but a little more food than we expected. The one entree was a whole fish that we ended up spliting and enjoying to the last bite! For dessert, we had noticed a lemon merigue tart when we walked in. Note the picture included above! After dinner, we headed home to rest up for the next day's drive back to Lugano. You do not want to be sleepy on the roads around the French and Italian Riviera...make note.