San Marino
Did you know that there are two entire countries located within the borders of Italy? Sure, they're micro-countries. But countries nonetheless.
Most people know that the Vatican is considered a country. But the other? San Marino.
San Marino is a tiny mostly tourist town located up a mountain near the middle of Italy. It makes for a great day trip if you're looking for something different in Italy - or just hoping to get one more stamp on your passport (it costs five euros and you can get it at the tourism office).
I went there with my brother - taking a day trip from Venice. Now, I wouldn't advise this for most. It's a three hour train ride plus a 45 minute bus ride just to get there. Multiply that by two to get back. We, however, knew it would be worth the travel time.
The easiest way to get to San Marino is to arrive at the city of Rimini, an Italian city by the coast. From there, you can catch a bus at the train station that leaves at regular intervals and heads straight to San Marino.
The train ride to Rimini was fascinating. It went right along the coastline nearly the entire way. We then easily located the bus stop and headed to San Marino.
When you arrive, you can easily find your way around by multiple sign postings. Now, it's mostly a tourist town, so you'll see all sorts of restaurants and other shops persuading you to buy things.
Since the city is on a mountain, you'll be either traveling up or down for most of your stay in San Marino.
The main attractions in the city are two castles - located at the opposite points of the highest spots of the mountain.
You can easily travel from one to the other by a brick pathway - as seen in the picture above. However, be warned, if you want to enter the castles you must pay a fee.
It's fairly hard to get lost in this small country. Since the different streets and shops are on different levels of the side of the mountain you can almost always tell where you are.
My brother and I thoroughly enjoyed our afternoon in this quant country before heading back to Rimini to see what it had to offer.
Visiting San Marino was certainly worth it if for the novelty factor alone. If you're looking for something just a little bit different from Italy, take a day trip to San Marino.
