EUROPE TO-DAY

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXVI, Issue 12413, 28 July 1938, Page 2

EUROPE TO-DAY

HI VIERA REAVTV SPOTS Some of the beauty spots tve have seen already. We 'come, still in the sunshine and between the hills ana the sea, to Monaco, with the old town on a mass of rock, the palace of the Prince of Monaco, the Museum of Marine Biology, and the turquoise bay of Monte Carlo.

But there is Mentone to see—the most easterly town on The French Riviera, and often declared to be the loveliest of all the spots hereabouts, with the old town high on a promontory, It is a gay place—but it is a sad one, for hero consumptives seek health often finding it, and sometimes failing. Life may be bright or very grim in this charming spot laved by the Mediterranean.

And now, coming to the Italian Riviera, here are Bordighera and San Remo with picturesque old towns and modern hotels in wooded gardens. There is Alassio, Savona with its busy harbour, and then the famous town of Genoa with over 300,000 people, the old town by the harbour and protected by massive walls, the place still with an air of antiquity reminding us that here walked young Columbus.

Somehow Genoa has hardly the attractions we might have expected. The streets are more monotonous and less pleasing than those of most Italian towns: hut beyond the old quarter are One inlaces of the Renaissance, and also handsome modern streets.

This is as fa” ns we must go. Of all these French and Italian coastal towns in what we call the Riviera it may be said that they are empowered in sunshine and flowers and that here the invalid finds health and the rich man loses much of his wealth. Pleasant indeed to visit is this bit of Europe—but it is a good thing there are also Manchesters and Copenhagens.