During our week in Ventimiglia, we took a couple of day trips – to Monaco (a sovereign state on the Mediterranean coast, surrounded by France) and Menton, France.
Monaco
Monaco is surrounded on 3 sides by France and the 4th side sits on the Mediterranean Sea. It’s the second smallest country / city-state (behind only Vatican City) – it’s 0.8 square miles but is the most densely populated with over 38,000 residents. Monaco is famous for the Monte Carlo Casino as well as the Formula 1 Grand Prix race held in June, held on winding city streets. It’s also known for its ultra wealthy population (in part due to being a tax haven and having no personal income tax).
They have a semi-constitutional monarchy and Prince Albert II is the current king – son of Prince Ranier III and Princes Grace (Grace Kelly). The Grimaldi family has ruled Monaco – with some interruptions – since 1297, when Francois (an exiled member of the Grimaldi family from Genoa) seized power. This BBC article has a more detailed historical timeline if you’re interested: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-17625894
Monaco is an easy 30 minute train ride along the coast from Ventimiglia so it made for an ideal day trip. The train station is up on the hill, close to the casino and it’s an easy walk down to the harbor from there.
As you can imagine, there are some large yachts in the harbor! Makes sense given the overflow harbor we saw in Ventimiglia.
With their Formula 1 fame, it wasn’t surprising to see these statues around town. This one is of Juan Manuel Fangio (I had no idea who that was and had to look him up but Chris knew who he was!) – he was an Argentinean race car driver active in the 1950s; he was a 5-time Formula One champion who interestingly was also kidnapped in Havana by Castro’s rebels ahead of the Cuba Grand Prix in 1958. You can read more about him here: https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/february-23/formula-one-champ-kidnapped)
This tunnel behind Chris is part of the race course. So crazy that the race is on city streets.
Right above the tunnel is the Fairmont Monte Carlo hotel – and in front of that is the Fairmont Hairpin Turn. Out of curiosity, I checked prices for that hotel the week of the race …. it was a bargain at $58k for 4 nights! đł. But it does include breakfast, so there’s that.
We sat and watched so many sports cars go by on this turn – and we had a lot of company doing the same thing. We were there for about 45 minutes – this is a small sample of some of the cars.
After that we walked over to the eastern section of the city where there is a nice beach. We stopped for a drink and snack while we enjoyed the view. Since it’s surrounded by France and really close to Italy, a RosĂ© and a pizza-ish dish seemed like a good mix (they called this bruschetta but it was more like a flatbread pizza).
After that we walked back over to the train station and took the train back to Ventimiglia.
Menton
Our other day trip was to Menton, France – a coastal town between Monaco and the France-Italy border. It was a 20 minute train ride from Ventimiglia. I had actually been to both Monaco and Menton before – some friends and I rode rented bicycles from Nice to Menton and stopped in Monaco on the way then took the train back to Nice (and it was a very hilly ride! but the scenery was beautiful).
Menton is famous for its lemons (it has a lot of sunshine and mild winters and is somewhat protected from the wind, making it ideal for growing lemons) and we happened to visit during their 92nd annual FĂȘte du Citron (Citrus Festival) that takes place the last 2 weeks of February – https://monacolife.net/fete-du-citron-2026-when-to-go-and-how-to-do-it-for-free/. This year’s theme was âMerveilles du vivantâ (wonders of life).
They had a ton of sculptures made out of citrus fruit. There are also other events, including a parade on Sundays, but we just took in the experience of wandering around the scupltures and trying all of the various lemon-based treats. You can read more about the festival itself and the Menton lemons here: https://frenchmoments.eu/menton-lemon-festival-fete-du-citron-de-menton/
The lemons used in structures and floats during the festival are grown in Spain – the Menton lemons are less plentiful and their production is protected. I was curious what happens to all of this fruit after the festival – at the end of the festival, the lemons, citrus fruits, and flowers used in the sculptures and floats are sold at a special Sunday market at a reduced price (around âŹ3 for 3 kg). I noticed that the fruit was held onto the sculptures by bands rather than anything piercing the fruit. I love that nothing is wasted.
The stalls along the park had so many great treats – the citronade, limoncello, and tarte au citron were some of our favorites.
We spent some time walking along the coast then made our way back to Ventimiglia for the night.
