Milan to La Garde

Today is the final leg of our travels, and it's welcome. Not to sound snooty - this is a fantastic trip and we're very fortunate to be able to do it - but at some point you get saturated. All the cities and trains and hotels run together to the point of diminishing returns. It's sort of the opposite of a week at Club Med, where after 3 days you're sort of bored from the sameness. For example, in Zurich (5th hotel), upon returning from dinner we couldn't remember our room number and had to ask the front desk.

Today we rode the Thello, a special train with service between Milan and Marseille. It runs south to the coast at Genoa then runs west along the coast, passing they all the famous Cote d'Azur locations: Monaco, Nice, Monte Carlo, Cannes. It'll be a distinctly different kind of beautiful from yesterday's trip thru the Alps.

Here's the route:

We started the day on a lazy fashion, sleeping in then having a long breakfast. Plus, wifi works in the hotel cafe, so we took advantage of that.

Then we were off. The plan was to take the metro to the Duomo, see that in passing then have lunch in The Galleria. But the heat defeated us: tugging suitcases any distance in 90* weather fell apart real quick, so we caught a cab to the train station.

At least we got to drive past the Duomo

At the station we and had lunch in an AC'ed cafe

Dave had pasta (seemed like I should have it once in Italy) and Bee had bufalo mozzarella with prosciutto. Check out the giant bottles of olive oil and balsamic

Then we were off.

The area south of Milan looks a lot like the Salinas valley

As the train leaves the inland area, we passed thru a long tunnel then came out into a steep and verdant valley. We sped downhill thru many curves and tunnels

We hit the Mediterranean in Genoa

The proceeded west thru the city on elevated track

Dave had his face pressed to the window while Bee read a lot

Europeans love shirts with American writing and pictures on them. Most are nonsensical English words. Once in a while they're cool - this is my favorite so far, on a guy who was across the aisle. Bonus points if you can name the character

Heading west along the Cote d'Azure. Resort towns in the distance

There were many of these, apparently private beach areas

Public beaches as well

Isola Gallinara, just off the coast of Albenga, Italy

Sanremo, with Nice in the distance

Ventimiglia is the last stop in Italy

We crossed the border into France and the houses became REALLY nice

Here we're entering Monaco, with Monte Carlo just ahead. Daylight is starting to fade

The train goes under all of Mote Carlo in a tunnel. Their train station was really nice

The harbor has a good many super-yachts

Passing thru Nice, which has clay tennis courts

And a palm tree lined waterfront

And miniature golf!

Villefranche-sur-mer is a little cove with a crescent beach

The tracks hug the cliff about 100 feet above the beach - you look straight down upon it

At Cannes the tracks run inland. Buildings are pretty in the setting sunlight

West side of Cannes has a long narrow rocky beach

Beyond Cannes the coast turns rocky, with no beaches

It reminded me of Pebble Beach or La Jolla. Intermittent houses with amazing views

Agay has this pretty little cove and beach

The train goes inland from Frejus to Toulon, thru an area filled with vineyards. Again, it looks a LOT like California

Our train arrived in Toulon at about 10:30. Blake, Andre, and Catherine were at the station. Good to be here!

We're now in La Garde til we return home, Dave in 4 days and Bee in 8