Summer moments

With my wife and some friends, we have decided to go touring by car. Our destination was Barcelona via Italy and the Riviera. We have chosen the shortest way, through Croatia and Slovenia. We had to pay EUR 37 for the motorway sticker which is valid for six months. In Italy, France and Spain they still use the old system of gates, where the time you have to spend waiting to pay depends on the method of payment. If you have small change, or pay by credit card, it’s over in a glance. Better still, is to have a Telepass (RFI) card, because with this card you don’t have to stop at all. Cannes is not one of the neglected tourist destinations. Tourism is the main source of income here and everything is designed to get us to consume. Concerts, programs and events, like those of the International Fireworks Festival all serve this purpose. Everything stays open well into the night. We have spent 35-40 minutes watching the Festival, the four of us spending EUR 100 on parking, ice cream and coffee. Considering that a few hundred thousand people have done the same thing that evening, revenues must have been quite good. Monte Carlo is not to be missed. It is the synonym for wealth and carefree life with the Casino, the Hotel de Paris, the Formula-1, the palace of the prince and the café de Paris (where prices and quality do not correlate). The program for tourists is the usual: a visit to the harbour to take a look at the yachts, then a walk to the Casino, to take a look at some Aston Martins, Ferraris and Lamborghinis in the parking lot and at the impressive line up of Maybachs, Rolls Royces and Bentleys in front of the Hotel de Paris. While we were sipping the worst and most expensive coffee served during our excursion on the terrace of Café de Paris, we noticed that that the density of Ferraris was unusually high even by local standards. It was a Ferrari promotion, taking place on the Formula-1 racetrack. Anybody could just get into a Ferrari and drive a full lap for only EUR 85. I don’t know if the idea had come from the brand or from a local entrepreneur, but judging from the number of people queuing for a ride, it was highly effective PR.