Another Big Little Country

I knew nothing about San Marino, except that it was another small country I could visit on this trip (after Andorra and Monaco).

True to my experience of the other small countries, though, San Marino is a pretty awesome little place. It is believed to be the world’s oldest republic, land-locked and covering an area of only 61sq/km, but it has never really gone to war.

Ever.

When Napoleon (after the Napoleonic wars) offered them the area that would join the republic to the Adriatic Sea , they said “Nah, we’ll be right”, or words to that effect.

We checked in to the Hotel Il Monte and were pleasantly surprised. Even though our room was downstairs it felt light, airy and spacious, and had a lovely outlook. The reception and common areas were modern and colourful, and the staff were friendly.

People probably say visiting Mount Titano, the fortified rock where the castle and original republic are all perched, is like time-travelling straight back into the Middle Ages, but for us that was even more so thanks to it being the San Marino annual Medieval Festival when we trudged uphill in search of dinner.

The atmosphere was lively and fun, but San Marino had another surprise in store for us that night.

It seems that this tiny little republic has fairly relaxed laws relating to the sale of guns and other weapons. There are gun shops everywhere.

It was a strange form of sight-seeing, but as we don’t ever see guns we were intrigued as we delved through the shops that sat alongside the regular tourist offerings of postcards and jewellery.

We extended our San Marino stay and spent the whole of the next day within the walls of the old town starting with a visit to the Museum of Torture, which I found pretty hard going. The place is definitely not for the feint-hearted especially if you are drawn, like me, to read the descriptions and uses. They may not have warred against other countries but you wouldn’t want to cross the line in San Marino, (or anywhere else) in the middle ages knowing there was such a huge selection of instruments to inflict pain with, and seemingly a keen willingness to use them.

After that, I needed some fresh air.

The kids probably did too.

Before exploring one of the three fortresses perched on the rock.

Which was, rightfully so, really working the Medieval theme…

Actually, the exploration of foods, cooking techniques, medicines and the like, was really interesting, and I enjoyed the way it was presented in such an approachable way, with all the attired-folk happy to share their knowledge, albeit in very broken English, but hey, my Italian isn’t great either!