Some places are just special.
From the moment you catch your first sight of it, rounding a bend high above the sea and seeing it sprawling along the narrow gap below where the Mediterranean Sea meets the land, you know you're approaching a holy place. The clustered high-rises crowded together like a whispering crowd below the regal gaze of the Grimaldi palace. The yachts in the harbour. The mountains rising imperiously on all sides, frowning down on the little natural amphitheatre-and behind it all the stretch, the sweep of pearl-blue, sparkling and dancing in the sunlight like diamonds scattered over a blue carpet, you know this place is different.