Nice to Rome - snaps from August 25th, 2015

Nice to Rome - snaps from August, 25th 2015 from Ashley Habeck on Vimeo.

Camping Roma... Don't let the name mislead you

We left our beautiful Nice apartment around 10am today to make our way to the beach where we would spend a few hours before heading to the airport.

We opted for one of the beach clubs on Promenade de Anglais, Hi Beach, which was right across the street from the Negresco. A day pass to rent a chair was 22 euros which also gave us access to a bar, restaurant, and showers. 

The next few hours went by too fast. The weather perfect... not a cloud in the sky. The water was so refreshing... and salty! And the beach... rocky as ever. I think I could get use to these rocky beaches.  You never get sandy, the rocks don't get hot like sand does and they sort of massage your feet. The only tough part is getting in and out of the water with the waves crashing on you. 

Around 3pm we gathered our belongings and made our way back to the airport. We we're met with an hour long line to check our bags - gotta love Easyjet and their one bag only carry on rule. 

We landed in Rome and headed for a meeting point where the Camping Roma shuttle was picking us up. We are spending tonight as well as Friday night here as our Busabout trip picks us up & drops us off here. 

Camping Roma is about 20 minutes outside Rome city center. The pictures on the website made it look nice but we had no idea what this place had in store for us.  I had envisioned being greeted by dozens of crazy loud young backpackers and what we actually experienced couldn't have been more off.   Yes there were young people staying here but there were also families (with babies) and older couples.  The "camp" has a bar, restaurant, grocery store, pool, a couple hundred shared & private bungalows, and an area for RVs. It's a great set up and perfect for a semi budget savvy stay. 

It was dark when we arrived so pictures of the camp will come later... until then it's time for us to get some rest before our 3 day Amalfi Coast tour! 

Nice - AirBnb front door and Coca-Cola pictures

Here are our 2 pictures from Nice! If you missed why we are taking these pictures here's an explanation

Audible on a Monday

One of the beautiful things about the Cote de Azur is that you can go 10 minutes in either direction and you are in another little beach town. It's basically like driving up and down the Jersey shore  minus the MTV crowd and a lot more history. So I guess it's nothing like driving up and down the Jersey shore.  There are also cool Medieval towns up on the mountains like Eze or St. Paul de Vence. If you had a car you could zip around and spend an hour or two in each of the small towns along the way. When you rely on public transportation it is still possible to check some of the towns but it is one town per trip. 

Our original plan for Monday was to head up to St Paul de Vence, but the hour bus ride inspired us to audible and head to the small beach town of Antibes. It was a much easier 20 minute train ride. 

There is a good amount of history around the town and even Napolean was in charge during his younger days (fairly certain I read that but don't fact check me).  

The train station is across the street from Port Vauban, which is home to some beautiful modest boats and serves as a Port (maybe home port?) to some of the largest yachts in the world. Do Note that 500 feet is the max, so don't come around here brining your 510 foot cruiser. You'll be forced to anchor somewhere else. 

We walked along the old stone embankment that now serves as a promenade to get to the many SAND beaches and settle on the last beach in town, Plage de la Salis. The setting was perfect. Old Stone Wall on our left, the Pine Trees of Cap d'Antibes on our right and Mediterranean with the Mountains behind it. Tough to beat. 

After laying out we headed into Old Town to check out some of the narrow streets. The Commune Libre offered some of the idyllic streets we were looking for. After a our stroll it is time for a Crepe near the Place Nationale. Much better than what we're were used to from the Viva la Crepes chain back home. 

With full bellies we headed back to train for the 3pm to Nice. Back at the apartment we did some laundry by hand, had some wine and cheese, and did some prep work before heading around the corner to Hotel Geneve for dinner. 

People can be very negative about the Attitutude of the French when it comes to us not speaking their language. In a vacation town like Nice that is certainly not the case and our waitress may have been the nicest person we have met so far. It was a great meal to end our time in Nice. 

We head out for Rome tomorrow on a 5:45 pm flight. 

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Videos from Monday's day trip to Antibes via Ashley's snapchat:

Antibes - Snaps from August 24th, 2015 from Ashley Habeck on Vimeo

Working on My Selfie Smile

I, along with plenty of other people I'm sure, have been amazed at the fascination with "selfies". These have always been around for as long as we have had point and shoots (if not earlier), but social media has brought the ugliness of the act to the surface. That's not saying that the people are ugly, it's really the over sharing of pictures of ourselves that is gross. 

The invention of the selfie stick is in my mind the equivalent of those dog leashes that extend and contract. Genius ideas, but annoying to everyone around when not used responsibly. So when our friends Eric and Jamie gave us a selfie stick for this trip, I was apprehensive to say the the least. However, in this first week of our trip it has proven priceless and we wouldn't have been able to grab some of the pictures we have of the two of us.  

I'm still getting comfortable with the awkwardness, so hopefully I'll have the smile down by Amsterdam. 

CHEEEEEEESE

Snaps from August 23rd, 2015 - Eze

Eze - snaps from August 23, 2015 from Ashley Habeck on Vimeo.

The rest of the afternoon looked like this....