Libertas!

Last summer, as we sat around planning out trips, we decided that we would try our very best to make it to every European country that we could.  Last Saturday, we crossed another country off our list- the tiny Repubblica San Marino.

It's a country!

San Marino claims to be the oldest republic in the world, founded around the year 300. It is surrounded only by Italy and is the 5th smallest country in the world (behind only Vatican City, Monaco and a few random islands).

We contributed to the country's main industry of tourism on Saturday and enjoyed the lovely weather that the Italian spring (I'd call it summer though now!) provided.  It would be pretty neat to live in a country that has no national debt, shares borders with only one country (and Italy at that!), has the lowest unemployment in Europe, is on the Euro, but is not a member of the EU, and has no sales tax.  You'd also be in great shape if you lived in San Marino because the entire country is one big hill.

Hiking to the castles

The three towers of San Marino are quite iconic and are depicted on the country's license plate, flag and coat of arms.  The country is also very proud to be independent and the motto "Libertas" is also a quite common site.  We hiked up Mount Titano and along the trails that connect the towers.  From there, we had impressive views of the countryside and also the Adriatic, which is a mere 10km away.

There's the Adriatic

We checked out more of the town including the Palazzo Pubblico...

Where we saw the Rock of the Guard...

The Basilica di San Marino...

After a lovely afternoon in San Marino high atop the hill, we descended the mountain and found ourselves hungry and near the beach...

The beach in Rimini

We checked out an "in" spot- Rimini.  According to my research, Rimini is like the Atlantic City of Italy. It's one of the largest beaches in Italy and surprisingly, it was quite beachy.  I say that because most Italian , beaches are not at all like American beaches.  They are rocky and small and people often sunbathe on patches of concrete.  This beach was a long stretch of sand, although somewhat cluttered with "stuff" like changing huts, umbrellas and attractions, like a dolphin show(!?!)

Rimini was quiet on Saturday, likely because it was still not "hot" enough for the Italians to be at the beach and was mid-day.  We found the 70-80 degree temperatures very enjoyable and had lunch/dinner right across from the beach.

An nice day trip and another country off the list!