Glamorous microstate of casinos & yachts
Monaco presses itself into just 2 square kilometres of Mediterranean coastline – and somehow fits in a palace, casino, F1 racetrack, cliff garden, and one of the world’s greatest opera houses inside.
Look up from the harbour. Glass-panelled apartment blocks stack themselves into the hillside, floor by floor, stretching towards the ridge. It doesn’t look like the fishing villages along the rest of the Riviera. It looks like money – concentrated, vertical, and confident.
That ease is everywhere. The cars are sleeker than in Marseilles or Nice. The yachts are longer, their white panels gleaming in the sun. Even the pavements feel well-funded, meticulously clean as they are. Monaco is home to more millionaires per square metre than almost anywhere on earth.
And yet, when you follow a narrow lane up into the old town, the sense of Grand Prix winnings falls away. The Monaco that existed long before the race roared through its streets is still there: sun-warmed stone, a staid palace, calm views of the Med sparkling below.
View The Principality of Monaco
