Old Town - an ancient part of Nice, which is easy to get lost. Messy maze of streets, old houses, around - restaurants, shops, galleries, artists.

Wander through the old town is better on foot to many narrow streets of the car will not pass, and the bike will have to carry the stone stairs. But tourists to explore the power of the triangle bounded by the east of the castle hill, south - This waterfront-Uni, west promenade Payon from the north - Piazza Garibaldi.

By the beginning of the XVII century, this small triangle is under the protection of the citadel and proprietary Nice. Current from the Maritime Alps river Payon, which laundress washed linen, sometimes flooded city. By the seventies of the last century wayward river locked up in an underground pipe, it has ceased to separate the Old Town from the new arc stretching along the Gulf of the Angels.

Ancient neighborhoods - not just a tourist attraction. At night, the local area are transformed into open-air cafes, where dancing, a resident of Old Nice closes the window hoping to drown out the music and multilingual speaking. But in the morning he goes to the basket on the market Cours Saleya and drinking coffee with friends in the bistro, surveying the silent street. Two lives, tourist and ordinary, run parallel.

In the heat of summer the streets of Old Nice merciful to tourists: the contrast of temperatures incandescent tiled roofs and narrow streets shaded drives the air - there is always a cool breeze blowing. That is why the citizens without the slightest hesitation over the windows hang clothes to dry. Colorful house with green shutters look as if time had stopped a couple of centuries ago. Next - just as the old small baroque churches: the Chapel of the Holy Trinity and the Holy Shroud, the church of St. James, the chapel of Mercy with its dazzling frescoes and gilded, the church of St. Francis of Paola, standing in front of the Opera of Nice.

The streets of Old Town are so narrow that appreciate the beauty of the buildings can be difficult. Such is the fate of the palace Lascaris on Rue Droite - to enjoy its beauty, you have to get inside, where tourists are waiting for the interiors in the style of the Italian Baroque and Musical Instrument Museum, the second in France, according to the riches of the collection.

On the same square Rossetti, in the heart of the old town, stands the magnificent Cathedral of Saint Reparata, the patron saint of Nice. In the III century, fifteen-year-old girl from Caesarea in Palestine refused to renounce Christ and was beheaded, her soul in the form of a dove flew into the sky. Tradition says that the body of the martyr was put in a boat, which the angels brought her breath here, on the Bay of Angels.

Tourist direct his steps on the rocks istёrtym winding streets, the tower rises Bellande to cover the eye shining sea horizon, in the languor will sit at the table to taste the local street cafes socca cakes with salt and black pepper. From the cemetery at Castle Hill will fly chimes. Wind will bring the breath of the Gulf - such as fresh and clean as a breath of angels eighteen centuries ago.