In the Principality of Monaco, a small city-state on the French Riviera

 "Once in the middle [1920s], I was driving along the High Corniche Road through the twilight with the whole French Riviera twinkling on the sea below. As far ahead as I could see was Monte Carlo … when life was literally a dream." -- F. Scott Fitzgerald

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(on the French Riviera a few kilometers west of the Italian region of Liguria) Barely more than 100 years ago, the notion of visiting the French Riviera in the summertime was unheard of in polite society, which deemed the South of France in July and August to be far too hot and bothersome. Instead, the first-class trains and ornate horse-drawn carriages would start to arrive as the weather cooled and the first snows fell on the Alps, delivering queens and tsars, dukes and duchesses, writers and artists for a glittering winter season of parties and operas, and promenading under the palms. In winter at the turn of the 19th century, the Cote d’Azur was considered the center of the fashionable world. In summer, the carriages departed, and the opulent villas and belle époque hotels were shuttered up once more, until the haze of summer dissipated, and the sea again revealed its winter sparkle. Indeed, that’s how the Riviera remained a decidedly wintertime resort -- until the 1920’s that is, when New York socialites, Gerard and Sarah Murphy, convinced the Hotel du Cap Eden Roc to keep a wing open for them for a summer. After buying a nearby villa the next year, they invited friends F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway for decadent, endless summers of jumping off the rocks into the sea, fabulous parties, and long boozy lunches under the shade of pine trees that would occasionally "buzz" with cicadas.

+ Featured here is the Principality of Monaco, a small city-state overlooking the pristine blue waters of the Mediterranean, a place famed for its glamor and wealth. Monaco is found along the sea in the midst of the resort area of the Côte d’Azur (French Riviera). (The city of Nice, France, lies nine miles [~15 km]) to the west, the Italian border five miles to the east.) Monaco’s territory occupies a set of densely clustered hills and a headland that looks southward over the Mediterranean. Many unusual features, however, have made Monaco among the most luxurious tourist resorts in the world -- and have given it a fame far exceeding its size. In dramatic contrast, the rocky outcrop known as Le Rocher, jutting out on the south side of the port, is crowned by a charming old town, which is home to the principality's royal palace. (More famous is Monte Carlo, a neighborhood soaked in sun, money, and expensive champagne, and home to the Formula One Monaco Grand Prix, the European Poker Tour, and the Monte Carlo Rally.)