San Marino

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The Old Town and not much more

The main reason for this trip to Italy was to visit San Marino. San Marino is one of the smallest independent countries in the world. According to CIA World Fact Book San Marino is the fourth smallest country in the world. Only Holy See, Monaco, Tuvalu and Nauru are smaller.

San Marino is surrounded by Italy in all directions and could never find a way of telling an Italian from a Sammarinese. They look the same and speak the same language. There might be a cultural difference but I couldn't find any. Considering that the Italians have elected one porn star to the parliament and a homophobic womanizer to the post of prime minister one might hope there is a cultural difference between Italians and Sammarinese.

The historical centre of San Marino lies on the top of the mountain Mount Titano. The historical centre, Mount Titano and the city's fortifications have been declared a world heritage by UNESCO.

The city centre is a nice to walk around in. In daytime there are a little too many shops around to really enjoy it though. The views from Mount Titano are always great, so they can be enjoyed any time of the day, and the fortifications look marvellous with or without tourists. But the tourist shops and the restaurants actually spoil the fun of walking around in the city centre in daytime. I don't blame the Sammarinese for taking the opportunity of making business, I only point out the fact that the shops caused a disturbance in the Force.

On the second day of my visit to San Marino I went to the city centre early in the morning. Then it was much nicer to walk around there. All the shops were closed and there were no signs or stands put up anywhere. It was just me and the empty streets. I liked that much better.

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