San Marino

Thirty minutes from the Italian city of Rimini lies the dwarf state of San Marino, which few have heard of. The country is surrounded on all sides by Italy, and its capital (the city of San Marino) is situated on the massive rock of Mount Titano.

Interestingly, this god-forsaken place is the oldest continuously existing state in the world. Once in the year 301, a stonemason named Marin fled persecution in the Roman Empire and climbed a high mountain so that no one would find him.

On this mountain, Marin declared himself a saint, founded a Christian community, and proclaimed independence from Rome. Rome itself, of course, was unaware of this. Since then and up to our days, no one has invaded San Marino because it was simply of no use to anyone.

There is a shuttle bus service from Rimini to San Marino. It climbs straight up the mountain and parks at the most picturesque bus stop in the world.

In the city center stands a local statue of liberty.

Right behind the statue is the town hall and government building of San Marino in one structure. The building is open to visitors, and on the balcony, you can easily spot a local official discussing state affairs over the phone.

The main church of San Marino rather resembles a theater building.

In the city itself, there is a lot of “castle-like” architecture. Tall beige walls made of large bricks, against which jagged towers rise.

Parts of the fortress walls blend into residential houses.

Cafes, restaurants, shops, and taverns — in San Marino, everything fits organically into the overall urban setting.

The roofs of the houses are mainly covered with tiles.

Streets of a medieval city.

Of course, there is absolutely nothing to do in San Marino. The city seems to have a cinema, a couple of museums, and that’s it. Moreover, one of the museums is about torture.

Out of boredom, the government of San Marino came up with such entertainment for itself. It is introducing a visa-free regime with all sorts of countries whose citizens cannot come to Europe without a visa.

The thing is, San Marino is surrounded on all sides by Italy and does not have its own airport. Therefore, you can only get here by land, and for that, you first need to arrive in Italy with a Schengen visa.

So, it turns out that introducing a visa-free regime even with Afghanistan means absolutely nothing. That’s why San Marino has canceled visas with Russia, China, Morocco, and Kenya. Just for fun.

Of course, there are no checkpoints at the entrance to San Marino, and even citizens of “visa-required” countries can simply take a bus and arrive. However, there are collectors who gather visas in their passports. Especially for them, souvenir stamps are placed at the local tourist center for 5 euros.

So if San Marino is so boring and there’s nothing to do, why come here? Well, because the views from here are simply mind-blowing.

At the very peak of Mount Titano, a fortress wall begins. Now that’s a real castle.

The castle consists of three towers. Figuratively speaking, because in reality, the towers were built separately with a significant gap in time, and there is no single “castle” in San Marino.

The first tower was built in the 11th century for the defense of the country. It also housed a prison in the past.

From the first tower, a fortress wall extends.

In this fortress wall, there are many intermediate towers where you can even enter and see San Marino through a cannon window.

This same fortress wall also doubles as a staircase and a walking path.

Beneath your feet is a view of the city from a height of 700 meters. From this height, people skydive with a parachute.

At the other end of the wall, the second tower is visible.

Although the distance between the towers is only 300 meters in a straight line, reaching it is not so simple. The fortress wall twists, turns into steps, and constantly changes the surrounding landscape.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a whole forest begins.

From it emerges an absolutely fairy-tale, ancient tower entwined with ivy.

Finally, the views from here are so breathtaking that every five minutes you stop and take a million photos from all angles.

The second tower was built in the 13th century, and now there is some museum for those eccentric individuals who are tired of the mountain view.

From here you can see the third tower — the smallest and youngest. It was built in the 14th century.

No, this is boring already. What is the 14th century by our standards? Nothing at all!