Genoa had the best views of the city from level 7 of the Savoai spot peppered with cognac and nuts
Getting out of Genoa was a tricky manoeuvring as toll companies control the GPS systems and even if you are only 150 km away they want you to go 350 on a toll highways…
Sadly the towns along the coastal drive lacked parking so it took us few towns to get a parking to stop for lunch at Finale Ligure … even then it was a loading zone and kind delivery driver warned me to drive around to locate a legal parking … almost lost my best half at the one way street 😎
Nothing beats a drive by the seaside for coastal roads offer some of the most breathtaking scenery and, of course, epic sunsets. If you are keen to know more about the world's most stunning coastal drives, here's some help. Make way for these drives in your travel bucket list, and hit the roads when the world reopens and it is safe to travel again. Till then, stay home and jot down your dream itinerary.
Emil Jellinek-Mercedes – General Counsel for Austria-Hungary, and founder of Mercedes car company buried in Nice at Cimetière du Château
The city is nicknamed Nice la Belle (Nissa La Bella in Niçard), meaning 'Nice the Beautiful', which is also the title of the unofficial anthem of Nice, written by Menica Rondelly in 1912. The area of today's Nice contains Terra Amata, an archaeological site which displays evidence of a very early use of fire 380,000 years ago. Around 350 BC, Greeks of Marseille founded a permanent settlement and called it Νίκαια, Nikaia, after Nike, the goddess of victory.[5]Through the ages, the town has changed hands many times. Its strategic location and port significantly contributed to its maritime strength. From 1388 it was a dominion of Savoy, then became part of the French First Republic between 1792 and 1815, when it was returned to the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, the legal predecessor of the Kingdom of Italy, until its re-annexation by France in 1860.
The natural environment of the Nice area and its mild Mediterranean climate came to the attention of the English upper classes in the second half of the 18th century, when an increasing number of aristocratic families took to spending their winters there. In 1931, following its refurbishment the city's main seaside promenade, the Promenade des Anglais ("Walkway of the English"), was inaugurated by Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught; it owes its name to visitors to the resort.[6] These included Queen Victoria along with her son Edward VII who spent winters there, as well as Henry Cavendish, born in Nice, who discovered hydrogen.
Bold History of French Riviera
An Italian island is letting foreigners live rent-free for three months.
Ollolai is located in the wild Barbagia area far from the Sardinia’s VIP-packed coastlines — a place where old traditions survive and bandits once lived in caves.
Through time, locals left in search of a brighter future elsewhere, emptying the ancient district, now covered in street art depicting rural life.
In the past century, Ollolai’s population shrank from 2,250 to 1,300, with only a handful of babies born each year.
The village adopted a highly publicized measure in 2018 to revive the old district: selling crumbling homes for 1 euro.
“That was a major success — many foreigners bought and restyled dozens of forsaken dwellings,” said Mayor Francesco Columbu told CNBC. “Now, after investing in high-speed internet, with this new project ‘Work from Ollolai’ we want to make our village a digital nomad hub.”
Homebuyers find a quieter Côte d’Azur in its hill towns
Tourrettes-sur-Loup is perched on a hill between Vence and Grasse, one of the area’s more industrial towns, famous for its perfume industry. Below a mix of medieval and Romanesque buildings arranged along cobbled streets, its southern side drops away in a steep cliff providing striking views.
“The town has lots of charm and is ideally located close to [Nice] airport and the surrounding areas we enjoy like Cannes, Villefranche-sur-Mer and Èze,” says John. “We aren’t beach people so we actually prefer the mountainous location in the hills surrounded by the olive and fruit trees.”
Besides being cheaper than the area’s leading coastal towns, inland villages and their surrounds provide a quieter environment with less traffic, especially in the peak summer months, and opportunities to acquire larger homes with land, while retaining some of the advantages of the Côte d’Azur location, such as lucrative rental opportunities in the summer months.
The problem with the coast, apart from the price, is that most of the houses are overlooked and you don’t generally get any land [with them]. So, if you have children, they don’t have much of a garden unless you’re paying tens of millions of euros,” says Christian Levett, a retired commodities trader, who has owned a home in Mougins since 2006.
Levett, who lives in Florence and got to know Mougins while working in Monaco, is a patron of the town’s thriving cultural scene. In June, he will open its newest museum, the Female Artists of the Mougins Museum (FAMM), showing exclusively work he owns by women. It replaces the Mougins Museum of Classical Art, which also included items from his extensive collection of Greek, Roman and Egyptian antiquities, and closed in August 2023. Since 2010, Levett has also owned local restaurant L’Amandier de Mougins, where the Salon Picasso commemorates the Spanish artist who spent the final years of his life in Notre-Dame-de-Vie, his villa outside the town.
We aren’t beach people so we actually prefer the mountainous location in the hills surrounded by the olive and fruit trees
If Spencer buys the house in Mougins, he will spend roughly €200,000 refurbishing it, then live there between October and March, taking advantage of the six-month temporary long stay visa available to those from the UK, renting it out in the summer months to holidaymakers or those attending conferences in Cannes. He estimates it will rent for €40,000 per month in the peak months of June to September, and €20,000 in May and October.
In recent months, the range of mortgages available to both French and non-French buyers has grown, increasing the options for those considering a purchase.
“Last year, as interest rates increased, French banks withdrew many products for foreign borrowers and it became very difficult to find a mortgage,” says Fiona Watts of International Private Finance, which helps European homebuyers with finance for purchases on the Côte d’Azur.
“But since January, the range has increased significantly.” The ECB kept interest rates stable at its last meeting on April 11. But market watchers anticipate cuts later in the year, and falling mortgage rates as a result.
We think that conditions for those seeking finance this year will continue to improve,” says Liam Wilkinson, who runs Fortier Finance, a Nice-based financial adviser that specialises in providing finance for homes in the south of France and the Alps, for non-French clients.
Those considering a purchase must therefore balance the chance to borrow at lower rates later in the year with the risk that lower mortgage rates increase demand from buyers and current discounts disappear.
“We did talk about waiting, and yes, we may have lost out a little when it comes to mortgage rates, but current rates are not high when you look historically, and I don’t think they will ever go back below 3 per cent,” says John.
“We felt like there were good deals to be had on local properties right now, which might disappear.” Spencer is biding his time, however, waiting for interest rates — and with them mortgage rates — to fall.
His mortgage adviser has drawn up an attestation de financement, a formal statement issued by financial advisers to support a home purchase, which Spencer has given to the vendor of the Mougins home.
But he has not yet made a formal offer. “I know I’m in a precarious position but even if mortgage rates fall, I think there will be a lag before that feeds through to greater demand,” he says. “My optimum time for a purchase is the next three to six months.”
