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Monaco – land of Princess Grace and Prince Rainier, the grand Casino, beaches, affluence, fashion, fancy cars and playboys. The tiny independent sovereign state located between the foot of the Southern Alps and the Mediterranean, in the far southeastern corner of France, Monaco’s 1.95 sq km benefit from an exceptionally mild climate with 300 sunny days a year. The Principality of Monaco is comprised of three main parts: Monaco (the Rock and Prince's Palace), La Condamine (the major port and bustling shopping area at the foot of the Rock) and Monte Carlo, the central area around the Casino with the high-end hotels.

The Grimaldi family has ruled the principality since 1297 and Prince Rainier's rule has modernized Monaco and weaned it from its dependence on gambling revenue, which now accounts for only 4.3% of GDP. Citizens live an idyllic tax-free life of cradle-to-grave security. Tourism is now the backbone of the economy.

Arounder Monaco boasts 15 panoramas of Monte Carlo and the principality. View the world-class Oceanographic Museum, play a round at the Monte Carlo Golf Club, visit the Monaco Cathedral, Princess Grace’s final resting place, and take in the glamour at Monte Carlo’s famous Casino.

What is Arounder?
Arounder was conceived as a series of online magazines, each profiling a different city and the best that city has to offer with a series of 360-degree panoramas. It’s an online magazine that educates with immersive panoramas rather than heavy in-depth text … a picture speaks a thousand words, as they say.

Arounder was created by VRWAY Communication’s R&D company, webidentity dot com. The nucleus of the concept is the virtual tour – 360-degree photographic panoramas that the user pans left, right, up and down – a format many believe better than a standard photograph as it gives the viewer a better sense of being there, standing within the scene. Users may then click on hotspots within each panorama to move on to another pano, and thus take a virtual tour. Each panorama within the series highlights a historic point of interest within that city – such as cathedrals or old town squares, and places where a tourist would visit if physically in that city – museums, parks, local marketplaces and seaside promenades. But the panoramas also take you virtually where you could not travel physically and bring you a depth of detail often not available in person due to crowds and other restrictions.

Technology Neutral
Arounder launched in 2004 with the first in a series of issues - Arounder Lugano - and followed with the popular Arounder Milan. In early 2005, Arounder will release issues on Barcelona, Monaco, and Rome. Each issue contains many panoramas in a selection of formats – QuickTime Full Screen, QuickTime Medium and Java – so that both dial-up and high-speed Internet users can participate. Navigation is easy with Zoomify Flash maps of the city and surrounding area. Every issue also links to local merchants with virtual tours of hotels, restaurants and stores.

List of Panoramas
Once you reach the Arounder Monaco homepage, either mouse-over the map to find your panorama of interest, or click the ‘City Tour’ link and you will be redirected to a page with thumbnail links to the following panoramas:

1. Casino Gardens
2. Saint Devote Chapel
3. Place de Casino, at night
4. Fontaine Mirabeau
5. Monaco Cathedral
6. Palais de Justice
7. Casino Gardens (another view)
8. Japanese Garden
9. Oceanographic Museum
10. Port de Monaco panorama
11. Place d’Armes
12. Palais Princier
13. Port de Monaco sunrise
14. Monte Carlo Golf Club
15. Grimaldi Forum

Related Articles:
- Arounder Lugano
- Arounder Milan