{"id":3230,"date":"2026-02-28T21:33:05","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T21:33:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=3230"},"modified":"2026-03-01T17:45:02","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T17:45:02","slug":"monte-carlo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=3230","title":{"rendered":"Monte Carlo"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

They don\u2019t make wine in Monte Carlo, nor in the rest of Monaco as far as we know.\u00a0 But nestled between Northern Italy and Southern France, there is plenty of winemaking all around it.\u00a0 Monaco is a tiny enclave that would be relatively unknown if it weren\u2019t for the fact that their prince married a glamorous Hollywood star. That was 70 years ago, and people still haven\u2019t gotten over it.\u00a0 The cathedral, not one of Europe\u2019s finest, is visited frequently just because they were married there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, Monaco\u2019s lax tax requirements attract superstars of sports, film and finance.  The people who actually work there generally commute from France.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Monte Carlo and its yachts.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

For a visitor who would like to do more than gamble, Monte Carlo does have its attractions.  The port is full of eye-popping yachts, undoubtedly owned by the aforementioned tax evaders. We believe a few oligarchs also take advantage of berthing there.  As a typical visitor, all you can do is look and envy for a little while.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The Yellow Submarine in front of the Monaco Oceanographic Museum.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Monte Carlo is a center of the study of oceanography, dating to 1910 when the then Prince Albert became interested in the oceans and founded the Oceanographic Museum that is still there in an ornate palatial building.  Even if staring at sea-related objects is not your thing, it is worth seeing the building, perched on a cliff over the Mediterranean.  Jacques-Yves Cousteau, famed for his voyages on the Calypso, was director of the museum for more than 30 years.  One fun tidbit for a visitor is the yellow submarine (yes, that Yellow Submarine) in front of the museum.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The narrow streets of Vieux Monte Carlo.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

We particularly enjoyed the sector called Vieux (\u201cOld\u201d) Monte Carlo.\u00a0 It is actually the historic town of Monaco, also known as Monaco-Ville or Le Rocher (the \u201cRock\u201d).\u00a0 The latter nickname is fairly evident given its perch above the city and sea.\u00a0 The streets are quite narrow and are festooned with Monegasque flags and the colors of the Grimaldi\u2019s the princely family.\u00a0 There is pleasure in wandering around, stopping here for a coffee, there for a glass of wine or beer, and dining en plein air<\/em> at one of the numerous caf\u00e9s in the sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course there is the casino.  With gambling legalized in so many US states these days, the thrill of wasting money on the turn of a card is not so rare these days.  But there\u2019s nothing in Las Vegas or Atlantic City to rival the Old World grandeur of the casino in Monte Carlo.  Baccarat has never been our thing, so once we went in and saw the beauty of the gambling den, we left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monte Carlo sits athwart the Italian and French Rivieras, which are reason enough to be in this part of the world\u2026to say nothing of the vineyards inland.  If you happen to be in that part of the world, it pays to visit \u201cthe Rock\u201d, if only to say you\u2019ve been there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They don\u2019t make wine in Monte Carlo, nor in the rest of Monaco as far as we know.\u00a0 But nestled between Northern Italy and Southern France, there is plenty of winemaking all around it.\u00a0 Monaco is a tiny enclave that would be relatively unknown if it weren\u2019t for the fact that their prince married a … Continue reading Monte Carlo<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3230"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3230"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3242,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3230\/revisions\/3242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}