Place Giuseppe Garibaldi is a grand, rectangular square lined with ochre-colored buildings that feature Italianate trompe l'oeil facades. Built in the late eighteenth century, it serves as a gateway between the old town and the newer port…
The Italian Roots of Nice
This walking tour leads you through the ocher-washed plazas and Baroque landmarks of Vieux Nice, highlighting the architecture and monuments that reflect the city's long history as a Savoyard and Piedmontese stronghold. You will see how deeply Italian the city's soul remains, more than 160 years after becoming part of France.
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1. Place Giuseppe Garibaldi
2. Palais communal de Nice
The Palais communal in Nice features a facade dominated by a heavy, rusticated stone base and a prominent clock tower that rises over the narrow streets of the old town. Built in the late nineteenth century to house the municipal…
3. Musée du Palais Lascaris
The Palais Lascaris features a facade of ornate, seventeenth-century Genoese stone carvings and oversized, arched doorways that distinguish it from the plain residential buildings on the street. Built by the Vintimille-Lascaris family, it…
4. Cathédrale Sainte-Réparate de Nice
The Cathédrale Sainte-Réparate stands apart in the tangle of Old Nice with a roof of glazed tiles colored in shades of bright yellow, blue, and white. This seventeenth-century structure replaced an older chapel to house the relics of Saint…
5. Paganini 1839-1840
Niccolo Paganini, the violin virtuoso whose speed and technical skill terrified audiences, died in the house on the corner of rue de la Prefecture and rue de l'Opera in May eighteen forty. He spent his final months in a second-floor room…
6. Sénat de Nice
The Sénat de Nice features a facade of pale, weathered stone accented by heavy, forest-green shutters. Built in the seventeenth century, this structure served as the seat of the Senate of Nice, the highest judicial and administrative…
7. Chapelle de la Miséricorde
The Chapelle de la Miséricorde stands out for its curved, undulating facade of ochre and cream, a stark contrast to the straight lines of the surrounding market stalls. Built in the mid-eighteenth century for the Confraternity of the Black…
8. Palais de la Préfecture
The Palais de la Préfecture in Nice features a grand facade of warm, ochre-colored stone that anchors the end of the Cours Saleya. Originally built in the seventeenth century as the royal palace for the House of Savoy, it served as the…
9. Place Masséna
The red ochre facades lining Place Masséna glow in the Mediterranean sun, framing a sprawling, pedestrian square patterned with black and white tiles. Once a chaotic nexus of narrow lanes, this space emerged in the eighteen thirties as a…