From Italy, through France to Monaco

On trains in three countries - Wednesday

There are two longish travel days on this holiday (days when we do little else but travel) and this is the first. We left Naples this morning at 9.50 a.m. having checked out of the hotel at 8.30 a.m. and got a taxi to the station, we didn’t want to walk that distance in Naples knowing what it feels like in some of the areas. We stopped for Paninos and Coffees at the station (mine was salami, Drew’s prosciutto).

We decided as we were going to be travelling from 9.50 to 20:10 that we would like a bit of comfort, so we had booked an upgrade for today’s travel, well the first two stages anyway. So we were in Premium class on the Frecciarossa 9526 from Naples to Milan, this provides larger seats, with more of a tilt, in addition drinks and snacks are brought to the table between stations. The small rosemary flavoured crispbreads were very pleasant and the San Pellegrino washed them down well.

Just as it was so easy to use my iPhone as the ticket on the Florence-Rome leg of the journey earlier in the holiday, so it was the same to use my laptop for this role today (I already had it open as I was naming some photos to load onto Flickr next time I have web-access). I’ve been storing all my Tickets, Maps and City guides in Dropbox. The advantage being that it is the same on all devices, so if my phone and laptop gave up we would still have Drew’s iPad and iPod to access the information. On Italian trains all you need is the code number for your journey, no physical ticket is necessary, a very efficient system.

The train left Naples on time, did the same in Rome and also stopped in Florence and Bologna before arriving at Milan at 14:40, 5 hours (all bar 10 minutes) since we departed and spot on time. These trains give you the departure times and platforms of trains leaving in 30 minutes after the arrival, and there was our next train. 

We had 25 minutes to get to our train from Milan to Ventimiglia, near the French border. This train was the Intercity 743 and, as we had booked the whole trip as an upgrade, in this type of train we were in First Class. This provided even wider seats than on the previous train. Like the Intercity to Naples this was an older train, but First Class was far less packed than second class had been on that occasion. 

The train left Milan on time, its first stop was at Pavia, then Voghera, then we followed a spectacular route through the mountains to Genoa, the train ran either through tunnels or down steep gorges, a very different Italy from the one we have spent the last week in. From Genoa we travelled along the coast with mountains on one side and bright sandy beaches on the other through places like Imperia and San Remo until we arrived at Ventimiglia.

Ventimiglia is a station where Italian trains stop and French trains take over, the route from Ventimiglia to the border is only 9 kilometres, but the different size train gages means some of Ventimiglia’s platforms serve Italian trains and the others French trains. From Ventimiglia we caught the 19.47 to Grasse, over the border through Menton to Monaco Monte Carlo in 20 minutes. 

We arrived in Monte Carlo at 20:10 got a taxi from the front of the station to the Hotel Columbus. We arrived at 8.30 and checked in. The room was smaller than we have been used to up to know, but it had a lovely view over the sea and along the Riviera.

Given how late we were we decided to eat in the hotel’s restaurant. Contrary to the high standard of the hotel the restaurant, which was a brassiere, was a bit of a letdown. Expensive food, not very tasty, served by surly waiters who clearly wanted to get home!
There was a very limited menu, only four items per course. Drew started with Salade de crevettes et mangue facon thai – yes prawns with a thai salad, this had none of the vibrancy of a thai salad at the Thai House in Cardiff, though the prawns were nicely cooked. I had Gaspacho Andalou et ses croutons. A Spaniard would be ashamed to call this a gaspacho, none of the strong tomato flavour, or the fresh vegetables were involved only a limp soup with time crotons. For mains we both had ‘Columbus Burgers’ with frites. The burgers were juicy and the frites were crunchy, so the meal wasn’t a complete mess, but for the 20 euros each they were very pricy.

We went back to the room (room 522) and went to sleep at around 10.20. A long day, but all the connections worked perfectly, which is a great relief.