Saying goodbye
We said goodbye to our friends at Blogville Rimini over coffee and Nutella piadina at Marvelli Sapori and made our way to the airport to pick up our rental car.
We booked a trusty Fiat through Auto Europe, we’ve booked through them in the past and will definitely use them again. They are easy to deal with and will help make sure you get a fair price.
Driving to San Marino was a cinch. It’s only 30 minutes from Rimini and sits high on a hilltop so you can see it all along the drive. The oldest republic in the world, it was founded around 350 A.D. and is a tenth of the size of New York City! It’s a strange and beautiful little place that can best be described as a tax-free shopping haven with a gun fetish (it has Europe’s most unrestricted gun laws and I’d bet the most gun shops per capita worldwide).
An overnight stay meant that we could go out at night, after the tour buses left, and explore the almost deserted streets.
I love small countries. So far Vatican and Lichtenstein are the smallest on my list followed by Luxembourg. Would love to visit San Marino one day as well 🙂
Awesome pictures! The castle looks so regal on that hill.
It’s a pretty special little place and actually has three towers. Anybody traveling in those parts should check it out.