Medieval Beauties of the Riviera

While in the Riviera we also visited a few other medieval towns. One was Bussana Vecchia in Italy. Bussana Vecchia was hit by an earthquake in 1887 and abandoned after the destruction. It is mostly a ghost town now, though many artists have set up shop in the old town.

The drive to and from was amazing, as we drove right on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, then up cliffs with some incredible views!

Bussana Vecchia

The cathedral is still standing, but roofless. It's pretty beautiful. I was really disappointed that it's locked up; they don't let you inside.

We still got some decent views of the cathedral even without going inside.

We walked around a bit and explored the ruins. It was a hot day, and I'm not sure it was worth the trip (I think it took about an hour with all the traffic we hit), but I still enjoyed it. Of course, the kids loved it. And at very least it made for some lovely pictures!

In the "museum"...there was no one working there and it was only one room.

I had to pick one to try it! It was a little sour, haha. But wild growing grapes! How cool is that?

The kids had a fun time following the trail of hearts (see the painted heart in between Levi and Olivia?) They actually led to someone's art gallery.

Quintana's little tongue makes me laugh!!

On our way from Dolceacqua to Nice, as we were getting ready to fly to Rome, we stopped at another medieval town in France called Ezze. It was more touristy but just as beautiful, with fantastic views. On the way, we passed through Monaco! A new country to add to our list! We didn't drive through town in Monaco, but got a pretty view from up the mountain.

Monaco

In Ezze...I adore these old fountains!

A creepy looking chapel in Ezze that has some connection to the Black Plague.

Little door...just his size

Do you see the All-Seeing Eye?

Views out to the ocean

Ezze from below

One cool thing in Ezze was the perfume factories. We went on a free tour, and it was interesting! The shop was fantastic, and actually not too pricey. I didn't get anything, though. And sadly, no pictures were allowed during the actual tour.

The perfume factory

Vintage perfumes (and me, haha)

They used this to distill the scents. Obviously, this is an old vintage distiller. But the ones they use today don't look too different.

And then we were off to the Nice airport! We thought we had tons of time; we checked out of our house at 11:00am and our flight left at 7:00pm. But with traffic, huge lines at the rental drop off, huge lines at the bag drop off, and crazy French queues that ended with people rushing out of line (behind us) straight up to the counter, we were the last to get on the plane!! We didn't get a chance to fill our water bottles or eat anything for dinner. And then, after all that, we sat on the plane for almost 1 1/2 hours because the ground team inexplicably left. Luckily the flight was less than an hour long, and getting from the airport to our house wasn't bad at all.

Off to Roma, the Eternal City!