RVing in Europe - 3 Countries in One Day - Genova, Italy to Monaco to Nice, France

June 8, 2007

From the Autogrill / Rest Area where we free camped after leaving Pisa the night before, we drove to Genova some 166 kms away.  The streets in Genova just like everywhere else in Italy were narrow, confusing and hard to navigate and there was construction in the city center.  We were looking for Genova's famous landmarks but can't find them, can't find a parking either.  It was kind of stressful so we left Genova.

So we drove farther until we reached Monaco, 180 kms from Genova, one of the smallest countries in the world and one of the most beautiful too.  Coming from the highway, one first approach Monaco from the top meaning one can see Monaco down below.  The city combined with the bluest sea makes a most spectacular view one could ever see.  Some streets in Monaco are even smaller than Italy's and we made the mistake of going into a one way street the wrong way.  We can't go forward but our RV was too big to make a U-turn, so we needed to go back on reverse.

We drove the streets of Monaco, went to the harbor, went to the beach, parked somewhere to take a break, took pictures, finally we left.

We were excited to drive some more because we knew 20 kms more and it's Nice, France.  So we went to Nice, France.  First thing we did was to find a parking spot to rest.  We found one, rested for an hour and thought about whether we were staying the night or not.  We chose not to because we thought we needed to go to a paid campsite to take a bath, fill up the water tank, discharge the gray water (we did not have black for the entire trip), cook, etc.

With the help of Georgia (remember Georgia the GPS?) we found a camping site in Cagnes Sur Mer called Camping Fleuri, 13 kms along the Cote d'Azur aka the French Riviera.

Before leaving, we did a driving tour of Nice. If we parked, we would need to walk a lot but we were too exhausted, so we just drove.  We said that we would go now to Cagnes Sur Mer but we would go back to do a better and more enthusiastic visit of Nice the following day.

So we went to Camping Fleuri located in the town of Cagnes Sur Mer, we checked-in and we settled.  I cooked dinner, that was for sure.  Camp fee was Euros 16.60 for the three of us.

Mar met a family (RVers too) at the camp who were amazed that our schedule was to go rving for 5 months.  They were flying back to the UK the next day and they did not want to bring with them unused extra virgin olive oil, pasta and pasta sauce so they gave them to Mar after asking Mar if he wants it and Mar said yes.

Mar drove a total of 379 kms and travelled to 4 cities in 3 countries safely.  It was a long but wonderful and memorable day.

Rest Areas or Rest Stops Along Italian Autostrada

Our first experience with Autogrill, a restaurant chain popular in Italy and some other countries in Europe and Italian autostrada rest areas was after we left Verona on our way to our second destination which was Venice, Italy.

Autogrill is a restaurant which happened to be located in strategic rest areas along the highways of Italy.  Autogrill and rest areas have become synonymous with each other thus when one say they stopped at Autogrill for the night they are actually saying they stopped at the rest area for the night.

It just so happened that Autogrill and rest area together is a perfect idea, in my opinion.

There are different sizes of buildings where Autogrill is located.  Some are located in buildings where there is a huge restaurant, a coffee shop, a good size grocery store, washrooms and bathrooms while some Autogrill are located in buildings just enough to house the restaurant and some washrooms. 

From Verona, we stopped at an Autogrill to have dinner (bought some bread and nutella too from the grocery store) and decided to stay in the rest area to pass the night.  We thought it would be nice to target arriving in Venice in the morning.

We locked up, at first we were listening to noises from around and generally from outside and then later, guess what, we were asleep.

Again, a first time - our very first free camping or dry camping.