June 28 - Depart the train with the tourist conga line at Nice-Ville train station. The weather has turned warmer and sunnier, more like one would expect along this coast in the summer. Easy walk to our apartment. The host is meticulous, explaining every little detail as to how everything works, and unusually, I have to sign a contract specifying hundreds of line items I will pay for if we break stuff.
Go for a walk around, first to get some vaguely Italian food, then down to the old town and coast.
Walk partway up the Colline du Chateau, stopping at the Bellanda Tower viewpoint because the park is closing and cops are kicking people out.
The number of tourists here is dialed up from Genova, on par with downtown Milan. When we go scouting tomorrow's train excursion, the train station is crammed with people, and the high-profile restaurants and beaches are full.
Due to its moderate climate, Nice's prehistory goes back a long way, but I will get into that on Day 37. The Romans built a settlement and trading center here named Nikaia, after the Goddess of Victory. It was pummeled almost out of existence during numerous barbarian raids at the end of the Roman Empire.
It gained protection from the House of Savoy much later on and grew steadily after that. It became known as a healthy place for people of means to spend the winter, and in particular, the English hung out here in droves starting in the late 1700s.
It only became a part of France in 1860 as a stipulation in the Treaty of Turin. This assimilation was supposed to have been done only after ‘consulting the public’ but appears to have been highly flawed, as annexation to France had already been decided and the voting results ignored. As a result, there was a large exodus of Niçards to Italy.
Why Italy? The histories of Nice and Genova are historically linked, both being part of Liguria. Guiseppe Garibaldi, who I talked about in Day 34, is one of the most famous Niçard Italians.
The city was again destroyed in WWII when the allies were preparing to invade southern France. It has rebuilt since and now enjoys a great deal of income from tourism.