L'avventura italiana: Bonjour France!

I can't believe how much I've seen in the past few days! Within my four-day weekend, I went to 8 different cities and 3 different countries. I guess you have to do speed sight-seeing when you're only here for a month! On Saturday we woke up bright and early in order to be on the bus to leave for Monaco at 6am. Since Google said it would take us 18 minutes to walk there, we had to leave the apartment before most people since we were the farthest away. It was a 4 hour drive to Monaco and even though I was tired, I didn't really want to sleep because the scenery was so awesome. I know that the drive along the California coast is really beautiful, but it doesn't even compare to this. There were rolling hills and mountains out one window, and valleys and the water out the other. After the long bus ride, we finally got to Monaco. Our schedule said that we were supposed to see Monte Carlo while in Monaco, but for some reason our tour didn't go there...so I didn't get to gamble in Monte Carlo :( We did get a walking tour to see the Prince's palace along with the cathedral where Prince Albert I and Grace Kelly are buried.
The next place we went to was Nice, France. We took another walking tour for a little while, but then we decided to check out the beach. The beaches in Nice are sort of different because instead of sand, they have rocks and pebbles that cover the ground. It's easy to clean up your feet from walking in it, but walking on it barefoot is a little bit painful unless you're careful! After we dipped our feet in the water for a while, we walked around the main shopping street. That night, we had dinner provided to us at the hotel. It was really good because we had chicken and rice...a nice change from all of the pasta I've been eating!
The next morning, we had breakfast at the hotel where I had the BEST croissant of my life. (I guess it makes sense since it was France!) The next place we went to was Saint Paul de Vence which is a small, quiet little town. The whole town is surrounded by a stone wall, but once you look over the wall, you can see the nearby towns and countryside, so it was really cool. On our drive to Cannes (our next stop), the clouds started getting darker and darker. By the time we got to Cannes, it was a complete downpour! We waited til it let up a little to get off the bus and find a place to eat lunch. Of course, once we get off the bus it starts down-pouring again. Too bad I still don't have an umbrella. We didn't get to explore much of Cannes because of the rain, but it was still fun to be there.
The last city we went to was Eze. We didn't actually go into the city, but we got a tour of Fragonard, which is a big perfume factory. Our schedule said that it would take us 4.5 hours to get from Eze to Florence, but they forgot to account for weekend traffic. It took us about 8 hours to get back. It was a very long day, but overall it was an awesome weekend.