Contiki: Day 8 – Nice to Florence

I, personally didn’t like Nice at all nor would I recommend it to anyone. Nice seemed pretty run down for a coastal city in southern France. One word: Grimy! Monaco which is a half hour away, seems like it’s in another world. All of the glitz, the glamour, the cleanliness, and more. Monaco is definitely a country that you need to see! Nice on the other hand, don’t waste your time! There are so many other great cities that you could spend your time in. I’m really not sure why Contiki even visits Nice? Maybe because it’s the only coastal city on the European Vista tour? But realistically the beaches in Nice are literally all rocks. There is no such thing as sand in Nice, so even if the weather was good the day that we were there, it still wouldn’t have really mattered! On top of that, I didn’t feel too comfortable staying at the Hotel Busby with it’s not so good of a reputation. I have to say through out my travels so far I have never been more happy to actually leave a city or country.

Unfortunately, this morning started with the same included hotel breakfast as yesterday. Once again, we received a plate with one piece of bread, and one croissant. Yummy! What a great start to our last morning in Nice!

After breakfast we loaded up the coach and headed off for our first quick stop which would be in Pisa, Italy. The home of the Leaning Tower of Pisa! I was pretty excited to get some good photos of the leaning tower. Before we arrived we were warned by our tour manager that as soon as we put the bus in park, that the “Lookie, Lookie’s” would harass us and try to sell us all sorts of fake merchandise. Watches, handbags, umbrellas, t-shirts, and anything else that you can think of. Our tour manager told us if we decided to buy anything we should definitely try to haggle and get the price down because they WILL take most offers.

Well that is exactly what happened when we got off of the bus. Five or six guys holding all sorts of fake merchandise surrounded the coach and tried to talk us into buying stuff. Nobody purchased anything yet, because we wanted to see the leaning tower first and then we would have some free time to shop afterwards.

We walked from the coach to the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Duomo, and baptistry? and we took a bunch of really cool photos while we were there. See some of the photos below!

After we took some photos I wanted to see if I could screw around with some of the street vendors. It’s something I enjoy doing actually. As I walked around, I was approached by many men trying to sell me watches, and sunglasses. I was stopped by one guy that had all sorts of sunglasses and I haggled with him a bit to drop the price on some Armani sunglasses from 20.00 Euro to 15.00. But that still wasn’t good enough for me. I offered him 8 Euro and he declined. I turned around and walked up to another vendor who sold me the same exact pair for 10.00 Euro.

Later I was stopped by a guy selling watches and I really played with this guys head. He was so persistent, and I kept walking away. He kept yelling… “Playboy, Playboy!”. “I give you best deal. Your lowest price? How much you spend?” I liked one of the black Armani watches that he had and I asked him how much? Ninety five Euro he replied. Ninety five Euro I said? You’re crazy! I’ll pay 20 Euro. He said no, that is good deal for you, no good deal for me. I walked away and as he followed me he kept asking me, Okay, how much you pay? I told him over and over that I would only pay 20 Euro. Fifteen minutes later this guy is still walking next to me asking me the same question, and I’m giving him the same answer. Over and over, 20 Euro, or no deal. He started getting aggravated and said, no this watch worth 300 Euro! I kept on saying to him, let’s be honest here! It’s fake! He agreed, and said but it’s good imitation! Haha!

To make a long story short I finally said okay, 25 Euro and that’s it! He accepted and I got a beautiful black Armani watch with an original price of 95 Euro for 25 Euro! Sweet deal! I was a happy man, and he was left aggravated! Too funny! The whole experience today at the leaning tower of Pisa was quite like my experience in New York back in December. I enjoy giving outrageous offers to these street vendors and when they won’t budge, I laugh and walk away. They absolutely hate it! One thing about New York was that things were quite a bit cheaper than the leaning tower of Pisa but all in all, it was a great experience.

The leaning tower of Pisa was great! Be sure to stop by there if you’re in the area. It’s a great sight to see!