Climb from the market square up the old ramp to the Palace, then loop the old town: cathedral, the Oceanographic Museum, the shady Saint-Martin gardens and the fort at the tip.
Best time: Arrive on the Rock by 11:30 for the 11:55 guard change; morning in summer
Coffee and a barbagiuan at the market chalets before the climb; 20 min.
Monaco's market since 1880 and the principality's living room. Until early 2027 the hall is under renovation and the vendors (A Roca, Maison des Pates, Chez Roger, the fishmonger…
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Rampe Major
The old stepped ramp up to the Palace square; 10 min climb.
Guard change at 11:55; State Apartments (to 15 Oct) 60 min.
The Grimaldi family's working residence since the 13th century; the summer-only tour takes you through frescoed Renaissance galleries and the throne room with an audio guide in…
Baroque penitents' chapel on Place de la Mairie; 10 min.
A 17th-century Baroque chapel of the Black Penitents on the old town's main square, home to the processional statues carried through the Rock on Good Friday evening.
Running since 1967 in the old town, its name means 'picnic basket' in Monegasque; barbagiuan, stocafi (dried-cod stew) and local wine at gentle prices by Rock standards.
Tombs of Princess Grace and Prince Rainier III; 20 min.
The white-stone Romanesque-Byzantine cathedral where Princess Grace and Prince Rainier III are buried behind the altar, alongside earlier Grimaldi princes.
Shady terraced gardens from 1830 wrapped around the cliff edge of the Rock, with a carp pond, a statue of Prince Albert I and sea views; old-town residents walk their dogs here…
Prince Albert I's 1910 temple to the sea, built into the cliff: an aquarium with around 90 tanks in the basement, whale skeletons and ship models upstairs, and a rooftop terrace…
