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Monaco is a very curious little place where ancient history mixes with business, money and hedonism; it appeared thousands of years ago as a Phoenician colony created both for military and commercial purposes. Then it passed onto the Greeks, Romans, Genoese, Italians and French, until during the thirteenth century, the Grimaldi family attained power over the principality, and since then - with very few interruptions - they have been at the helm of one of the smallest yet more prosperous countries on Earth. Macchiavelli praised Monaco in his writings as a state and as a strategic position; the port allows anyone there to control the Cote D'Azur as well as the navigation in the Mediterranean, and this is no coincidence, for the wise Phoenicians knew very well where to plant their settlements, colonies and bases. The country itself is very small - less than two square kilometres - and it is one of the best examples of the notion that nations benefit more by betting on the rich than on the poor: there are no proletarians in Monaco indeed, no shanty-towns and no poverty, and it has been so for centuries. More recently, Monaco has attracted a lot of money by becoming a fiscal paradise and a gambling Mecca with the creation of the famous Monte Carlo Casino, during the nineteenth century. Curiously enough, the country has three quarters, which were in the past separate towns but today are almost indistinguishable: Monaco, which is the capital itself, Monte Carlo and La Condamine.