My mom is a travel agent and she has fueled my travel bug! In December 2016, she called me right before Christmas that flights to Europe had dropped to $450! That’s like buy one get one free! 🙂 As soon as I got her phone call I had to make a plan to go to Europe with Cole for Spring Break! When we planned the trip we tried to do it low key, because of his health. So we only chose two cities and then explored the areas near by. We flew into Nice, France and then took a train to Genoa, Italy after for a few days. Below are some of our favorite things that we did in Nice! We traveled there in early March and it was unfortunately too cold for a beach vacation, which we kind of packed for some beach time.
In Nice we stayed right on the main Promenade in Old Town Nice in such a perfect little apartment, when we walked out the front door we had a perfect view of the Cote d’Azur, we could see every shade of blue in the sea, the colors were unreal. This AirBNB was amazing, I couldn’t have asked for a better location. Right behind the apartment there was an amazing open air market, Cours Saleya. Tuesday-Sunday, they had fresh food and beautiful produce in the morning and flowers to buy all day, we got our food for breakfast and lunch there every day. I just loved walking through the market, I wish I could do that every day at home. On Mondays it turned into a flea market and it was amazing, I needed a lot more luggage space, I found so many fun treasures! One of my favorite things to do on a trip is to find little things for my home and especially my kitchen. I love collecting cutting boards when I go somewhere new, and I found the most amazing one in Grasse, France. For one of the days we decided to shop at the market and make our own dinner, we bought fresh made raviolis, tomatoes, basil, bread and cheese. I used one of my favorite recipes from a cooking class that I took in Sienna, Italy. You don’t need a lot for the simple sauce, but it tastes just like you are eating in a fancy Italian restaurant.
Sugo di Pomodoro e Basilico Fresco (fresh tomato and basil)
2 cups fresh roma or plum tomoatoes
2 cloves of garlic
olive oil
2 TBSP fresh basil, chopped or torn
salt
Gently sauté the garlic in olive oil until soft, add chopped tomatoes and sauté for five minutes, adding salt to taste. Add the chopped basil and toss with cooked pasta.
Recipe from Gina Stipo, Ecco La Cucina cooking class in Sienna, Italy
When I travel I love to eat what the area is known for, in Nice I felt like there was a large Italian influence, so we ate a lot of delicious pizza and pasta places. We also ate at a delicious French restaurant one night, Restaurant Chez Acchiardo, it was amazing and it was the cutest atmosphere, it was tucked away on a quiet little street in Old Town Nice. Cole had never experienced real Gelato before and there was an amazing place right behind our apartment, and I am pretty sure we went to Oui everyday..maybe twice a day…
I love to walk around when I go on trips, I want to see every street and every little square. We loved walking on the Promenade des Anglais, we walked the entire stretch several times. Our favorite was walking up to Castle Hill from the Promenade, and the views of the Liguarian Sea and the town were amazing! When I travel I always have the goal to walk over ten miles everyday, I think we reached it everyday!
We took a few side trips out of Nice and it was so easy to use the bus and train system. The bus was so cheap and easy to navigate, it was only 1.50 euro for each of us. One day we went up to Grasse, France, which is the perfume capitol of the world. It would have been so amazing to be there when everything was in bloom. Since we were there on the off season the streets were empty, and we had the little city to ourselves.
For another day trip we went to Monaco and it was so fun to see all of the fancy yachts and apartments, and to add another Country to the list. 🙂 We walked along the docs and up to the Prince’s Palace of Monaco, unfortunately it was closed while we were there, but it was fun to walk around. I would love to spend more time there some day!
Nice, France would be an amazing location for a honeymoon or anniversary celebration!
I bought an amazing basket from this cute lady!
Grasse, France
Monaco
