SAN MARINO: San Marino – Mountainous Microstate
If you’re making the trip to San Marino then you are probably stopping off on the way from Rome, Florence or Venice. My advice is that you make this detour just to hang onto what little sanity you may have left after visiting these three crowded, klusterfuquian destinations if for nothing else, but for the sake of recharging your batteries for the next onslaught of humanity to be endured. Like its fellow microstate, Liechtenstein, it has views galore, but San Marino’s views are the 360 degree variety as opposed to Liechtenstein’s 180 degrees so you get twice the view at half the price!
It’s a bit of a tourist trap, but there is also a good deal more to do with copious museums, historic sites, restaurants and shopping galore, and best of all it’s affordable. In San Marino you can have a nice meal for 20 euros and 30 on a splurge. Café fare at lunch is available at 10 euros with a view that will take your breath away.
The shopping is geared to the ladies and gentlemen in a diametrically opposed fashion. For the ladies it’s jewelry, perfume, sunglasses and handbags, and for the guys it’s watches, pens, knives, guns and other forms of weaponry. Seriously, you have seen so many crossbows in your life! Cheesy cheap crap abounds, but there are a good deal of quality goods so in a couple of days in San Marino could put a serious dent in your credit card due to tax savings and good deals afforded by the geography.
You can probably get away with two days here. Don’t forget the more time you decompress the better you will feel on your next encounter with the Mongol hordes. I’ve had a day and a half here, and I feel like a new man who’s looking forward to repeating his early morning walk to the three towers and back before there is another soul on the trail save the trilling and warbling songbirds. That’s my kind of paradise especially since it’s one that you don’t have to die to visit.
360 degrees of this will put you right at ease. Even the bus station has this vista!
FIRST GLIMPSE
HOTEL JOLI – My Hotel sign hiding through the trees on the left and Tower One visible in the distance.
Windy narrow streets lend charm to the trek upward on this mountain citadel.
VICIOUS DICTATOR BEERS
SCULPTURE AND ART GREET YOU ROUND EVERY TURN
AND SO DO THESE STUNNING VIEWS
BARTOLOMEO BORGHESE
ART INSTALLATIONS EVERYWHERE
The funicular is clearly for the poor souls at the bottom of the mountain.
LA CAPANNA – Lunch with a View
This is how I started my day for the two days after I arrived.
After an early breakfast, I headed straight to Tower One at 8:30. This proved to be a winning formula.
TOWER ONE
TOWER TWO BECKONS IN THE DISTANCE
CUE THE CHIRPING BIRDS
TOWER TWO
WEAPONS COLLECTION
TOWER ONE FROM TOWER TWO
TOWER THREE SEEN FROM TOWER TWO
TOWER THREE – 13th. Century
Heading back to Tower Two
View of Tower One from Tower Two
Heading back for a look at the inside of Tower One.
INTERIOR TOWER ONE
6 Comments
Karen Devers
April 25, 2017San Marino looks like a much more enjoyable place to explore than the other “big 3.” How nice to see the trees flowering and the vistas are gorgeous. Jostling my way through throngs of people isn’t an activity I enjoy, it is exhausting emotionally as well as physically. I’m glad you had a chance to recover from the hordes!
The Travel Zealot
April 25, 2017Yes Karen,
I too am not fond of the crowds, and future travels will be planned to avoid them if at all possible. The nice thing about Venice is that there are areas where you can actually avoid them. The trick with San Marino is to go on a weekday and start early in the morning, have a nice lunch with a view and then take refuge in your hotel for a nice nap. You also will enjoy the lovely Jardin de Luxembourg in Paris which will be in walking distance of our apartment in Paris. It’s the one at the top of my Facebook page.
Karen Devers
April 26, 2017Your scouting will pay off in so many ways for future visits. I love the idea of getting a start in the morning, packing a lunch or eating at a cafe, and then a nap to prepare for the evening. Perfect!
The Travel Zealot
April 26, 2017I just got done adding the last of the San Marino pictures. Still haven’t finished the commentary since I have been busy with Florence and running around Venice.
Jason
May 1, 2017San Marino is definitely on my bucket list! Sans the semi automatic weapons and the fascist beer, I felt more relaxed just looking at the place.
The Travel Zealot
May 2, 2017Yeah Jason,
I really kind of enjoyed it there.