After our
day at Montserrat, we headed to France.
Our stop was supposed to be in Marseille in Provence France. We had reserved a rental car for the day and had planned to visit a St. Joseph and Marian apparition sites about one-and-a-half hours from Marseille.
However, as we left Barcelona, the captain informed us that the weather was not good near Marseille - so we would be stopping further along the coast in
Villefranche-sur-Mer. As we watched the sunrise over our cabin's balcony, we had no idea what to expect! Turns out, we in store for a beautiful day!
Villefranche is on the Cote d'Azur, otherwise known as the French Riviera. It is nestled between Nice and Monte Carlo. We had a beautiful view of the coast from our boat - however, instead of docking at a normal port - we were anchored a short-distance from the shore for the day.
This meant we had to be "tendered" by the smaller lifeboats from the ship to shore. We enjoyed the extra "boat ride" along the coast! (And comforting to know those lifeboats they say you'll take in case of an emergency actually work :)
There's not too much to see in Villefranche, other than pure beauty!...
So we walked to the train station and rode 20 minutes to
Monte Carlo, Monaco.
Monaco is the second-smallest country after the Vatican.
Monaco is best-known for its casino in Monte Carlo!
We had a lovely lunch at the famous Cafe de Paris outside of the casino.
The kids enjoyed strolling down the ritzy streets in the warm weather (55 F).
So it wasn't exactly like the day we had planned outside of Marseille, but it was a pretty great day and we got to add another country to the list of those we've visited as a family!
Our final stop before returning to Rome was in
Genoa, Italy.
We went to Mass at Cattedrale Di San Lorenzo, with it's beautiful black and white striped Gothic marble facade and interior.
We visited the beautiful fountain in Piazza De Ferrari.
And then had lunch at Trattoria Vegia Zena.
Genoa (Genova) is famous for it's pesto alla genovese sauce, which originated there -- so we were sure to try some! And we can agree, it's pretty delicious fresh from Genoa!
Our final stop was the Aquarium of Genoa, one of the largest in Europe! The kids (and Brian)
love to visit aquariums, so we've visited a lot of them, but I can definitely say this is the best one we've been to so far!
After our day in Genoa, we headed
back to the ship, and that night returned to Civitavecchia outside of Rome - where our trip would come to an end!
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