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Published: March 4th 2023
Dear All
Saluti di nuovo! This is my second and final entry on my mini-trip in February, and will relate my time in gorgeous little San Marino, sandwiched in between my time in Rimini and Bologna. And my goodness, what an amazing place this little country is! It is the fifth smallest country in the world, and the third smallest in Europe after the Vatican and Monaco. Still, it's a bit bigger than those two, at 24 square miles, though still has a population density of 1465 people per square mile, pretty much exactly twice as much as the UK, with a population of around 34,000 in total. It is a fascinating country with a very interesting history, and really is breathtakingly beautiful. Unlike Monaco and Liechtenstein, it doesn't have a monarchy and never has done - in fact, one of its claims to fame is that it is the world's oldest republic. It was actually founded way back in 301 AD when a stone mason called Marinus, orginally from Dalmatia in Croatia, but at the time living and working in Rimini, escaped from a mad woman in the city to find solitude in a cliff face on the side
Mount Titano
From Serravalleof Mount Titano, in the Apennine mountains just inland from Rimini. He was actually a deacon back in Rimini, and continued his practice of Christianity up in the mountain. When the son of a powerful Roman lady called Felicissima who owned the mountain became ill, Marinus apparently healed him, and she bequeathed him the mountain in gratitude. He began to attract a small Christian following of mountain dwellers, and built up the community on Christian values and freedom. The community existed in some form or another for the following centuries, until it created its Constitution in 1600, which is still followed to this day, and was recognised as an independent state by the Vatican in 1631. It's quite amazing to my mind that the little nation has maintained its sovereignty for so long, particularly in the face of the 1861 unification of Italy's many individual states under Giuseppe Garibaldi. The tiny country has maintained as its motto the word "Libertas", which appears on the country's flag and on many monuments throughout the place, and is also famous for having invited Abraham Lincoln to be a citizen following the US Civil War in the 1860s, which he in fact accepted. I
particularly admired during my time there the country's joining of the ideals of liberty and Jesus's teachings, and thus learned so much more about the place far beyond its notoriously poor performances in international football (England beat San Marino 10 - 0 during the last Euro qualifiers!), and the Eurovision Song Contest (highest ranking 19 out of twelve entries in total), though I do think these views are very unfair considering its tiny population!
Thus, on the Monday morning of my trip, I took the direct shuttle bus from Rimini to San Marino Citta, the main town of the small country, located at the very top of Mount Titano itself, 739 metres above Rimini and sea level below. Rimini is pretty much the gateway to the city, with three million tourists visiting it each year, mainly in the summer when it becomes a very popular day trip from the Italian beach resort. There were so many (empty) car parks in and around town for the visitor, I can only imagine how choked up the tiny streets get during its busy time. I was very glad to be visiting during the off-period, and only a handful of other visitors, mainly
day trippers, were on my bus. It made its way out of Rimini, and then entered the tiny Republic, though you would hardly notice it - nothing seemed to change to be honest, and there was certainly no border to speak of. The bus then made its way up the very winding main road through the hinterland of the country, before approaching the highly visible Mount Titano, with its three very famous towers lining the top - the silhouette of this hill is visible for miles around, even from Rimini. I believe many people have seen San Marino in passing, but will not have necessarily visited it. The final climb up to the mountain top was steep, and we skirted the mountain to enter from the other side, and disembarking from the bus I realised just what a special place this was.
San Marino Citta is the country's capital, with a population of around 4000, and just has to be one of the most spectacularly located places I've ever stayed in - it's literally a town on the top of a mountain, surrounded by steep and vertiginous cliffs on all sides. Walking around town simply feels as though you
are walking in the clouds, with every view to the north, south, east and west across either the Italian mountains inside or out towards the plain and coast on the other side. It also felt like I was constantly in an aeroplane, looking at the world from above again. Needless to say, the views were just awesome, and as it had snowed very heavily just the week before, the white stuff all around just added to the magic of this fascinating little nation. The snow fell one metre deep, causing absolute mayhem at the time apparently, with travellers stranded - I was so glad I missed it! The only slightly unnerving thing I'd say about San Marino is its proliferation of weapon shops in town, selling everything from camouflage gear and baseball bats, to guns, rifles and crossbows. There must be some kind of national law which allows the sale of such items there rather than in surrounding Italy, and it can only be said that if there are so many of these stores, there must also be a fair number of customers.
I arrived with a few hours to spare before check-in time at my hotel, so wandered
the fascinating winding streets, paths and staircases as they made their way up the mountainside to the top, taking in the central Palazzo Pubblico located on the Piazza della Liberta, the cable car station on the north-western edge of town, and the Basilica del Santo Marino, housing the relics of the country's quite obvious patron saint. I had a nice lunch of pasta filled with cheese and local San Marino berries of some sort, and wondered to myself why it was that half the waiters I encountered on this journey were far too self-important and superior for their position. I understand this makes me sound snobby, but I also believe waiters should be humble, and be there to help, smile and serve - many Italian waiters, usually older men, seem to think they are mini-barons, and God's gift to their customers - I dislike this attitude very much, and left no tips during my time in Italy and San Marino. The lunch was nice at least, and I got talking to an older Australian lady who was travelling with her family, and who turned out to be staying in the same hotel as me - I met her a few
times, and cottoned on quite quickly to the fact that she was a little dotty, yet very characterful. She had just come in to some inheritance money, and was there with her daughter and her family on a trip of a lifetime through Europe - it sounded incredible, and it was lovely to hear her story.
After lunch, it was time to make my way to my accommodation, which turned out to be the highest building in town, topped off only by the First Tower, more on that below, right above the place. It was on a quiet back street, away from the main tourist hubbub, of which there in fact was very little at this time of year still. My hotel was lovely, friendly, cute and cosy, and I slept well there, despite on my second night having some very fidgety neighbours who seemed to be doing something or other throughout the night. My window looked out onto a snow-filled garden, backed by the very city walls which linked the First and the Second Tower - it was like staying in a fairy tale, and I loved every minute of my time there!
After a short rest,
I headed out again, and did the tower walk. As mentioned, there are three towers at the top of Mount Titano: the First Tower, or Guaita, built in the 11th century; the Second Tower, or Cesta, built in the 13th century; and the Third Tower, or Montale, built in the 14th century. It is these three towers on top of the mountain which distinguishes San Marino from all the other lesser mountains in the area, and their distinct profile figures on many Sammarinese (!) emblems, including its national flag. I arrived at the First Tower towards closing time, so got a reduced entry, while the Second Tower was closed for winter repairs, and the Third Tower is always closed. The views from Guaita were incredible, and I loved exploring its grounds, walls and corridors, including a very narrow staircase-ladder with just metal bars sticking out of the wall for its final rungs. From here it was a 15-minute walk along the city ramparts to Cesta, and from here another 15-minute walk, this time through snow which hadn't been cleared on this part of the route, to Montale. The path then continued along the clifftop for a short way, before either
heading off to the left and down to the bottom of the mountain at the village of Borgo Maggiore, along the Sentiero della Rupe (Cliff Path) which I had planned to walk, or straight on then right, back down into the city again. Due to the heavy snowfall, which I could evidently see from there, the hotel owner advised me that the way would be dangerous and I heeded his advice. Instead, I followed the other path back into the city, which was precarious enough going downhill along some quite snowy and icy patches, walked back through town again, and down into Borgo Maggiore along an alternative snow-cleared path called Via Paolo Amaducci instead. I arrived in Borgo Maggiore just as the sun was setting, and loved walking through its tiny, but quite gorgeous, historic centre, before heading to the cable-car for one of its final trips back up to the top of the mountain again for that evening. The cable car, built in 1959, is incidentally the way that most tourists make their way up to town in the summer, having parked their cars at one of the countless car parks nearby. I had the pleasure of making the
journey up twice during my time there.
Back in town, dusk had set in, and I headed to a local eatery for a lovely takeaway Tagliatelle al Ragu, or rather the original version of Spaghetti Bolognese, and headed to my hotel room to call it a night.
The next day, my full day in San Marino, was just amazing, and I really enjoyed every minute of it. It didn't start too auspiciously however, but after three rather unfortunate incidents in the morning, it turned out to be a very special, spiritual and holy day - my favourite on the trip. First unfortunate incident: my main mobile phone stopped working, and although I was able to change my SIM card to my additional mobile phone I carry with me on my travels as my camera, it rather threw me a bit for the day and made me a bit late for my schedule. It certainly made me realise the importance of printing everything out for my trips, which I always do anyway, but will doubly ensure I do so in future now - boarding passes, hotel bookings and so on, you definitely need a paper back up of these
in case something happens to the digital copies and apps! Fortunately, I was able to get it up and running again at the end of the day! Second unfortunate incident: while being in a bit of a hurry after breakfast to make my morning bus for the day, due to the time it had taken to look into my mobile phone problem, I slipped on some black ice and fell to the ground in a road - this happened just after a car had driven by on the road, and I hate to imagine what would have happened if I'd slipped a few seconds earlier (so maybe this was in fact a very fortunate incident!). Final unfortunate incident: the backwardness of public transport and bus travel in San Marino, and Italy for that matter too. When my bus came, I found out you couldn't pay by cash or card up there in San Marino, but only with bus tickets bought at local tobacco shops - talk about a throw-back to travelling 20 years ago! The driver, who looked about 16 years old, said he'd wait three minutes for me as I ran to a nearby tobacco shop and hastily bought
View
San Marino two tickets, one for the return journey. I was not impressed with San Marino's public transport system.
While we're on a negative note here, I'll just get it out there that the Sammarinese public transport system continued to not impress that day. I was only able to get a bus network timetable by emailing the San Marino Tourist Office in advance of my visit. There were none to be found on the internet, nor whilst there, and I don't think the Tourist Office was even currently open in this off- season. The bus stops don't have any bus numbers or timetables, and they aren't even on Google Maps, which I have been relying on for public transport over the last few years. The teenaged bus driver told me he didn't go to the place I wanted to go to in the village of Serravalle, indicating that I might as well get off the bus, rather than telling me he could drop me around 500 metres away instead, which would have been more helpful, particularly considering the next bus anywhere wasn't for another hour or so. Fortunately I found this out by showing him where I wanted to go to
Snow
San Marino on my Google Maps App. Even when we got there, he tried to drop me off at the stop before, until I asked him to go to the next one. The return journey was slightly better, although crossing a dual carriageway with no pedestrian crossings, bridges or subways, I realised this is a place where no-one really uses the public transport "system", if it can be called that, and no-one walks either, evidenced by the complete lack of pavements outside the town centres. Everyone speeds around in their cars. Anyway, public transport is actually my only gripe about San Marino, everything else was just amazing and I thoroughly enjoyed my time there - so I will continue more positively hereon...!
The bus dropped me off at the side of the main dual carriageway running to Rimini, and I walked a short distance to the lovely, and very tiny, historic centre of a village called Serravalle. I was heading to the San Marino Jinja, a Japanese Shinto shrine founded in 2014 as currently the only one in Europe! When I was looking at a map of San Marino during the planning stages of my trip, this place particularly called out
to me, due to Japan being pretty much my favourite country, and that there are only Shinto shrines outside of Japan in a very few places in the world, mainly in the USA and Brazil I believe. The Jinja is located around a mile from Serravalle village, and my route there headed through a lovely landscaped park called Parco Laiala, and along part of the former railway line that used to link Rimini to San Marino from its creation in 1932 until much of it was completely destroyed during World War Two and hasn't been rebuilt since. As the park led into the former railway line, there were metal fences blocking it off, although considering I could see no other way to the Jinja, and considering that I'd just seen a local hop through a gap in the fence, I followed suit, and found that other walkers were similarly paying no attention to the metal fencing - this would be a big no-no in England, and if I did so here I'd forever feel like someone would shout at me or that I'd get into trouble - not so in San Marino it seems, where just like in Italy, rule-bending
City Walls
San Marino seems to be a national pastime.
I arrived at the Jinja on time to meet the shrine's Guji, or Shinto priest, who proceeded to explain to me the basics of Shintoism, more than I'd ever gotten to know while in Japan, and how he and the San Marino shrine came into being. All was very fascinating! Shintoism is a natural, animist belief system, and seems to have more in common with indigenous religions around the world rather than the major global religions. Its main deity is the sun goddess Amaterasu, who is the source of all light and life, and believes in lots of individual deities and spirits present throughout nature. The Guji, called Francesco, is actually Sammarinese, and whilst visiting Japan a few years prior to founding the shrine, engaged with the religion there and became one of the only non-Japanese Shinto priests in the world during his time there. When his Japanese contacts came to visit him in San Marino, they encouraged him to build a shrine there, and they found the perfect spot by a lovely little pond facing eastwards towards the rising sun and Japan, and felt that that was the place for the shrine.
He taught me the approaches to the shrine, the ritual washing with water, bowing and clapping (I just love the clapping parts!), and gifted me some lovely souvenirs of the San Marino Jinja. It was a very very special time for me, and reminded me again of how I simply fell in love with Japan during my visit there in 2018, and how I really should go back at some point to explore more. If it's possible to fall in love with a country, I think I have done it with Japan, and felt a great rekindling of my love for Japan whilst there - it was special.
After leaving the Jinja, I followed the former railway line further as it wound its way further uphill, with some amazing views back over the plains of San Marino, and up to the omnipresent outline of Mount Titano and its Three Towers overlooking the rest of the country below. I was heading for another village called Domagnano, where after crossing its busy dual carriageway and not liking again that there are hardly any pavements for pedestrians in this country, I caught a bus heading back towards San Marino Citta, alighting instead
once more at Borgo Maggiore at the foot of the mountain. This time I was heading to the north side of Mount Titano, where at its base there is a recently-built staircase climbing up around 30 metres to the Sacello del Santo Marino, a chapel located in the cliff face at the cave where Saint Marinus himself first sought shelter after he left Rimini to seek his hermit life there. This place is way off the tourist radar of San Marino visitors, as is pretty much everything outside of San Marino Citta, and as with the Jinja, I had the place completely to myself for the whole visit. The views from up there were amazing, and I sat in the place where the Saint is said to have had his bed, gazing out at the surrounding beauty and contemplating what a peaceful place of refuge this was for the man. I also wondered how on earth he'd find food up there, but I'm sure he managed, and that God provided. After the Shinto shrine, I also felt a great sense of peace and holiness up there - my time in San Marino was turning out to be quite a spiritual,
Palazzo Pubblico
Piazza della Liberta, San Marino inward-reflecting one.
After heading back down the steep steps, I headed back into the village of Borgo Maggiore to once more take the cable car up again to the top of Mount Titano, where I had just enough time to visit the four-floored National Museum. Here there were some interesting Roman artefacts and religious paintings, but what intrigued me the most was anything to do with Saint Marinus himself - I found a few religious paintings of him, and felt quite a connection with the man, having just been in his cliffside dwelling. I particularly liked one painting, a 17th century work by a painter called Giovan Battista Urbinelli, who depicted Saint Marinus alongside the three quintessentially Italian saints of Francis and Clare of Assisi, and Anthony of Padua. After this, I headed for another takeaway at Guaita, this time a Spaghetti alla Carbonara, and headed back for another cosy evening back in my hotel.
The following morning I made an effort to wake up early, at 6.30am, to have enough time to pack and have breakfast, before leaving to make the opening time of the Palazzo Pubblico at 9am, so I could spend enough time there before
my bus back to Rimini left at 10.30am. I had been trying to visit the country's central government building ever since I arrived there, but on the first day as well as the second, the government was in session - on the first day they told me to come back the next day, as the session may have finished by then. When I returned at 4pm the next day, it still hadn't finished and they told me to come back the next morning at 9am. This I did, and they told me this time to come back at 10am as it was still in session - what could these Sammarinese government people be discussing?! This was cutting it too fine for my bus I thought, so I asked politely if I could just take a quick step inside to take a photo, which they let me, and as I left I noticed two very important-looking cars parked in front - one had the number plate "SM001" and the other "SM002" - there must have been some seriously important people in the building at the time! I thus had a final hour to wander the streets of San Marino Citta for
the last time before I left, appreciating very much its peace and quiet particularly in the mornings and evenings. While undoubtedly not as crowded as summer, there were still a few tourists around in the daytime during my visit, but as they were mainly day trippers, I had the place very much to myself, along with a few locals, for each morning and evening during my stay there. And these were such precious moments for me.
San Marino is a really special place, and a lovely final European micro-state for me to have visited. San Marino Citta is an absolutely gorgeous, stone-built medieval town with winding, labyrinthine alleyways and staircases just begging to be explored. It sits conspicuously at the top of a stunning little mountain, surrounded on all sides by awesome views of Italian hills, plains and the Mediterranean in the far distance. It also has a certain spirituality to it, and I could clearly see why both Saint Marinus himself nearly 2000 years ago, and why the only Japanese Shinto shrine in Europe, decided to locate themselves there - it is a place of peace and beauty, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time there.
I was
heading back to Rimini, and my journey there and on again to Bologna is related in my previous blog entry on these travels, as it forms the Italian portion of this mini-trip. Thus, for now, I will end here, and look forward very much to writing up about my upcoming return to the USA soon, this time to the state of Florida!
Until then, thanks for reading, and all the best for now.
Alex
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Ake Och Emma
Ake Dahllof and Emma Holmbro
I visited San Marino in 2011
I was in San Marino in 2011. I clearly remember the dramatic views from the top of the cliff and how the town and everything seemed to be perched on that little mountain top. It was a nice place to visit but I don't think I will ever go back. I myself have one European microstate left to visit - Andorra. /Ake