Did images of Los Angeles/southern California come to mind when reading this post’s title? Wondering if I teleported to North America’s west coast?

Nope! Forget about SoCal. I’m talking about the Republic of San Marino, a micro-country in Europe most have probably never heard of.

Landlocked and completely surrounded by Italy, the Republic of San Marino (RSM), or Repubblica di San Marino in Italiano, is located on the northeastern slopes of the Apennine Mountains, about 20 kilometers from the Adriatic Sea and only a 6.5 hour drive from Napoli.

RSM borders two Italian regions: to the south and west with Marche (province of Pesaro), and to the north and east with Emilia-Romagna (province of Rimini). In total, RSM’s border with Italy is only 39 km long, and it has a land area of just over 61 square kilometers (23.5 square miles).

Since San Marino is on the my countries-to-visit list and relatively close, we decided to take a weekend road trip to check it out last month. (Yep, I’m that behind on writing!)

A Little History

(Not interested in History? Skip to the next section or even to my final thoughts.)

As the 5th smallest country in the world and the 3rd smallest in Europe, San Marino is the second micro-country that lies completely within Italy. Vatican City, the smallest country in the world, is the other micro-country completely surrounded by Italy and completely surrounded by one city—Roma!

Until the independence of Nauru in 1968, RSM was the smallest republic in the world. Even though it lost that title, RSM is still the oldest. Founded in AD 301 when it gained its independence from the Roman Empire, RSM is the oldest extant sovereign state. It then claimed its independence from the papal state in 1291.

It also is the oldest republic since San Marino is considered to have the earliest written governing documents still in effect—the Statutes of 1600 are still at the core of its constitutional framework.

RSM has stayed independent for all these centuries due to a combination of strategic isolation on a mountain, shrewd political diplomacy, and its historical status as an asylum for Italian unification figures like Giuseppe Garibaldi. Giuseppe Garibaldi and his wife Anita were some of the revolutionaries perscuted during the Italian unification process in the 19th century. Because RSM was a refuge for Garibaldi and others, Garibaldi allowed San Marino to remain independent.

In 1862, San Marino and the Kingdom of Italy signed a Convention of Friendship in Turin. This treaty formally guaranteed San Marino’s independence and established a framework for cooperation and good-neighborly relations, which has been renewed and updated. 

Even Napoleon, when he invaded Italy in 1797, respected the independence of RSM and even offered to extend its territory.

Road Tripping to RSM

We decided to road trip in my new-to-me 4-door car. My little 2010 Mercedes only had 2-doors and while good for around Naples, I didn’t feel that it would be able to make any kind of road trip So I traded for a 2018 4-door BMW. Apparently, I love German cars.

On Saturday morning, we headed out of Napoli and the Campania region towards RSM. As we veered towards the east coast, the views, even from the autostrade, showed the gorgeous azure blue sea.

Along the way, we stopped for lunch in San Benedetto del Tronto in the region of Marche on Italy’s east coast. We had a delightful lunch of seafood and took a stroll along the Adriatic Sea. I, of course, had to take off my shoes and go in up to my shins just so I could say I’d been in the Adriatic.

After lunch, we headed on towards RSM, arriving about mid-afternoon.

The capital, the City of San Marino, sits atop Monte Titano. Retaining much of its historic architecture, the City of San Marino is known for its medieval walled old town and narrow cobblestone streets. The Three Towers, castlelike citadels dating to the 11th century, sit atop Titano’s neighboring peaks.

Since the old city sits on top of a mountain, there are a couple ways to get up there. First is to drive, of course. But like a true mountain road, it is curvy with switchbacks—not for the faint of heart. (Although wait until I post about driving to the Santuario di Montevergine near Avellino.)

Second is to park in the lower town and take the funicular up. And third, is to park in the lower town and take the bus.

We, or rather I should say C, decided to drive all the way to the old city. Mostly because he had a surprise. But more on that later.

Luckily, RSM has several decent sized parking lots, conveniently numbered 1 through 8, with 1 being in the lowest and 8 being right by the main part of the old city. What we didn’t know before we got there is that parking lot 8 was closed because:

Yes, that’s right, it was RSM’s Comic Con weekend! And C’s surprise? He booked a room right in the heart of San Marino. (I had thought we were going to stay outside the city in Rimini.)

We had an absolute blast wandering the narrow streets, watching all the Comic Con cos players, and perusing both the regular shops as well as the Comic Con booths.

The historic town has a medieval layout featuring a central square and three iconic towers on the mountain’s peaks. Most of the Old Town is pedestrian only. The narrow cobblestone streets, staircases, and alleyways are fun to explore and see where you end up, what you can find around each corner as well as finding all of the different viewpoints really is the best way to explore. It’s hard to get lost because not only is the city compact, there are also maps and signposts along the way.

From the square, we headed towards the First Tower (Guaita), stopping to see the sights along the way. The views are absolutely spectacular.

From Guaita, we then headed to the and the Second (Cesta) via the Witches’ Pass. The Witches’ Pass is the path that joins the three towers, and its name evokes medieval folk beliefs about maidens who danced around the fire on moonlit nights and practiced mysterious rituals. Sadly, the Third Tower (Montale) is not open to the public.

Along the Witches’ Pass, we saw a tightrope walker going between the two towers.

I started filming after she fell. I got caught up watching her climb her safety rope back on to the tightrope and only thought to start filming once she was sitting on the tightrope. It was quite impressive to see the strength and agility it took her to get back up after hanging free.

I didn’t take hardly any photos of the comic con booths or cos players because while there were some amazing costumes, that wasn’t the reason why we were there. And it was the views from that had all of my attention.

We did, however, ride the funicular down and back just because. And we got even more great views.

Final Thoughts

RSM was a fun weekend trip. I enjoyed roaming the narrow streets, walking from Tower 1 to Tower 2, and seeing all the amazing views from the top of the city. The city is small and a day is plenty to see all RSM has. RSM is an easy day trip from several main Italian cities, only 2 hours from Bologna and 3 from Florence or Venice. Since our drive was a bit longer, it made more sense for us to stay overnight to see everything and not be rushed to get back.

If traveling through Italy, I recommend making RSM a stop. The views are worth it.

Is RSM on your travel list? Let me know in the comments below.