Our first impression of Venice was not so great... The Italians were pushy and rude. And, the whole place is really polluted and UBER expensive!!!An example: each ride on the Vaporetti- the water bus, is 6euro each way. Lucky for us, we have a great book that tells us where to get good deals in Europe, so we knew to purchase Blue Venice cards, where for 16 euro per person per day, we have unlimited rides on busses, Vaporetti, public restrooms, and discounts at re...

Nice is a lot of coastline again, but the beaches are made of pebbles... ouch!!! If you want to rent a mattress, the rate starts at 12euro and goes up- YIKES!!! That's 16dollars US. So of course, we opted to walk the town, since we're only here for 7 hours anyway (we'll be on a night train to Venice tonight). The city is pretty, and much less touristy and therefore more affordable than other places along the riviera. There's REALLY good ...

Cannes is definitely glamorous and EXPENSIVE. (Will made Deidre run from a restaurant for the first time in her life.  No, not a dine and dash, but we sat down, ordered water, looked at the prices on the menu, and as soon as the waiter turned the corner, sprinted out of the restaurant as fast as our legs could carry us!)  You can't even get a can of anything to drink ANYWHERE for less than 2euro, which is 3 american dollars, but it is...

Today we took time and walked into Saint Tropez, to see the huge multi-million dollar yachts.  Yup, they are definitely were huge! They had awesome designer furniture and champagne on each one, and some had helicopter landing pads on top.  That's apparentally how the rich and famous get to their yachts. Since we're staying about 5 miles out of town, we didn't feel like walking back, so we rented a scooter and cruised up and down th...

The french rivera is AMAZING, but getting here was... um... challenging. First, we missed the right train from Avignon, which in turn made us too late to catch a bus from the St. Raphael train station to St. Tropez. Through really, really good luck, we made it to Ste Maxime, but had to get a really expensive taxi ride to our place here. But who cares, we made it, and it is stunning. The mediterranian is still cold, but walking along the beach is so beautiful! It ...