San Marino

I have been to San Marino on four occasions — a couple in transit to other places, while the first time was for tourism. On that occasion I was a child and went to the oldest Republic in the world with my mother and her venerable Fiat 850 Special. I was very curious because it was the first time I set foot in a foreign state. We stayed in a hotel in the historic centre, which allowed us to easily see the various tourist attractions, well known or otherwise. I remember the path on Mount Titano leading to the three towers, in one of which there was a museum of edged weapons, the museum by the Franciscan convent, the philatelic and numismatic one.

In the centre of the capital, which I reached also by a cable car from the valley below, there are ancient medieval palazzi, the Government Palace, which I also visited inside, with its Hall of the Captains Regent, the church dedicated to St Marinus, and the wax museum. I returned to Italy crossing the same frontier I had entered by, the one at the locality of Dogana, obviously a free border where no checks are carried out. Many years later I returned to San Marino with my Seat Ibiza and a friend, arriving from the province of Pesaro and Urbino. On that occasion I was received by the Secretary of the San Marino Olympic Committee and interviewed by the state television and national radio. I then went to lunch in a typical restaurant in the historic centre; it was winter and there was not the crowd of tourists of the previous time.

I left the little country the same evening along the road to Rimini. On another occasion I came here briefly during a two-day business visit to Rimini, where I spent the night. I arrived in the evening, just enough time for a stroll through the centre as far as Piazza del Governo. In 2010 I was in San Marino for work in the company of a friend and took the chance to see the historic centre again and visit a modern shopping centre near the border with Italy.