The RunTo Monaco - Venice

Before we joined the RunTo group, we spent the day exploring around Venice and doing some souvenir shopping. Namely we were looking for Venician paper, Venician masks, and Gondolier hats which took us around the city through both St. Marco's square and Rialto bridge.

Later in the day we got dressed and ready for the welcoming cocktail hour and dinner party in the Church of the Abbey of Mercy (which I'm told required the event planners to... get to know the mayor of Venice). As we left the church's courtyard and into the chapel for dinner we were greeted with an avant guard performance which played off the religous elements of the setting

Today was the day we left Venice, starting on the road to Monaco. We got to the starting area where all 57 cars were lined up ready for us to leave. We got to our car which was the Bently GTC Speed Convertable and got situated. While we didn't have the flashiest car on the track by any means we most certainly had the most comfortable. We hit the road at 10:30 and started our climb up through the Dolomites. This is also the day that Dave managed to run the car into a guard rail on the other side of a ~500ft drop

Lunch was hosted at the Castello Ivano in Castel Ivano Italy. This 11th century structure is privately owned by a family out of Milan. While I was too nauseous to eat lunch the views were fantastic. We got to watch a storm blow over some mountains right as lunch was wrapping up. Also - on the way to lunch we saw one of the other memebers of the group getting towed for something. After some spotty weather in the afternoon, the sun came out to greet us at Lefay Dolomiti for the night. A hotel with scandanavian influences featuring a Michelin starred restaurant, but more importantly a heated pool and sauna.

After waking up with views of the Dolomites, having a tall glass of lemon juice, and getting back to the car we set off again to race through the mountainous roads. We spent most of the morning climbing through the Dolomites and all of the ski towns therein. We temporarily dropped down into the Strada dei Vini which is an Italian wine region before climbing back up to the top of Passo San Marco for lunch.

At the top of Passo San Marco, we stopped for a foundue lunch. Greeted by the ambiance of thunderstorms rolling over the distant peaks of the pass along with the dulcent tones of Alphorns we enjoyed lunch before once again setting off for Lake Como. Climbing back out of the Dolomites and approaching the coasts of Lake Como, we did hit a detour where the SatNav tried to route us and the other cars down a dirt track and then a cow path. Fortunately we were able to navigate down to the ferry port where we dropped our cars off for the night and boarded boats to our hotel for the night. Staying in the Villa d'Este which directly overlooked Lake Como we enjoyed ammenities such as a docked floating swimming pool and a restaruant with a 300 page wine list.

Waking up in Lake Como was an eventful morning due to some computer issues Dave was having. From Lake Como to lunch was the leg that I drove which unfortunately meant that I couldn't take pictures for this leg of the trip.

The afternoon started off with gorgeous weather but as we began to leave the flatter ground we began to drive into a strong storm. This storm caused some flooded roads and then introduced a thick fog for most of the afternoon until reaching the hotel. As we sat at the bar in Casa di Lagna the sun began to burn off some of the fog as it set leaving a hazy view of the rolling hills of vineyards that the hotel overlooked.

Waking up this morning we got to see a whole new set of scenery as the fog from the evening prior had been lifted overnight. This in turn exposed the French Alps on the horizon from the hotel courtyard. This morning we drove through lush forests and quaint towns all in the wine region of Italy before climbing down the coast to meet the Mediterrainian sea and leaving Italy in the rearview as we crossed into France for lunch.

Lunch was in the picturesque town of Menton along the French Rivierra. Served in a town square in front of a church lunch was prepared by Mauro Colagreco who is the head chef of Mirazur, a 3 Michelin starred restaurant and the recipient of "Best Restaurant in the World 2019". This location also required event planners to get to know the mayor of Menton. After lunch was a quick 40 minute drive over to Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, driving over Monaco, to our final destination where we left our car on the hotel's lawn and were greeted with fantastic views of the Mediterrainian sea. That night dinner was served on the hotel's private beach.

This is the first day since leaving Venice where we didn't have to pack up and hit the road the following morning so we started the day off slow. After relaxing by the pool for the afternoon we prepared for the biggest event of RunTo barring the F1 race itself: The yacht party. In the Monaco Harbor we have a yacht docked complete with multiple bars, full food service, live music, dancers, and a tattoo artist. For those brave enough to get the RunTo logo tattooed onto themselves they would get free entry into the next run. After closing the yacht out at 3am I ventured into Monaco proper to Lilly's nightclub and nearly didn't make it out before the roads of Monaco were shutdown for the morning to prepare for the F1 race.

Closing out the trip with the event that brought everyone to Italy in the first place: the Monaco F1 race. RunTo not only had the yacht to host the party on, but a separate "viewing yacht" right against the track for us to watch the race from.