The cours Saleya at dusk glows with a million different colors, languagues, and tastes.
The heart of Nice's old town - its most colorful and interesting quarter - lies only a block behind its seaside promenade and simply oozes atmosphere. The star attraction is the "cours Saleya," a bustling flower market by day and romantic place to dine in the evening, with a rainbow of patios offering every culinary delight. We stumbled into the area almost unknowingly on our second night in the city and ended up having one of our most memorable nights in Europe!
... and looking the other direction the ambiance doesn't stop. Above the Old Town lies "Castle Hill" - lit up with waterfalls and on a warm summer night, a perfect place to view the city. 
The energy in the Old Town at night you can just feel.
We ate at an Italian restaurant called "La Tavola" which served up bowls of pasta that were big enough for two, a legacy of Nice's Italian influence. The cours Saleya has been used as a market since the 1300's, and has always been filled with Italian culture and cuisine. (It wasn't officially French until 1860!) The area truly is a 'mixing bowl' of Mediterranean traditions, serving the best 'Nicois' we could find!
An after dinner stroll took us deeper into the old town, up cobblestone streets and dusty alleys. We passed eclectic little bars, cute shops, and interesting people. Free samples enticed us to stop for local candy, and later continued on to find the best gelato in town.
Coming from the Italian gelato kingdom, I was blown away when we came across FENOCCHIO - perhaps the most "on steroids" gelato shop in Europe! At 11:30pm there was a line 15 people deep to be served, all clamoring for one of their 86 DIFFERENT FLAVORS! They offered everything from tomato to lavender, nutella to M&M, cactus to avacado... it was amazing! I think they had 14 different variations on chocolate alone. (George - I need reinforcements!!!) I settled on mint chocolate and cherry, but would return every day for a year if I lived there!
Just one of their 5 flavor sections... "I'll have chocolate, please," "WHICH ONE??!!"
Doesn't take much to make me happy!
But perhaps the best thing about Fenocchio is that gives you the price for up to 15 SCOOPS! That's my kind of gelato place...
~ J. Twice
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