What is up there
Monaco-Ville sits on a rock rising straight out of the sea, and it carries the palace, the cathedral, the oceanographic museum and a grid of lanes too narrow for ordinary traffic.
It is low, pale and quiet, and it looks like a Ligurian hill village. Everywhere else in the country is high-rise. The contrast is the most surprising thing about visiting.
How to do it
Come early. The rock takes coach parties from mid-morning and empties by evening.
It is genuinely small — ten minutes across — so the sensible plan is the palace square, the cathedral, the museum, and then out to Fort Antoine at the tip, which is free and almost always empty.
There are lifts up from the harbour. Use them.
Monaco-Ville
Palais Princier
Cathédrale de Monaco
Musée Océanographique
Fort Antoine