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San Marino, ItalyJul 4, 2005
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View of surrounding Italy from San Marino
Eva next to the Museum of Torture
Small street within the castle walls
| We were about 30 km away from San Marino, the third smallest country in the world after Vatican City and Monaco, and even though it wasn't really mentioned in our guidebooks, it was recommended to us by the hostel staff so we decided to check it out. We were really glad we did! The country is just sort of a mountain with a city on it, and a castle at the top. I would say the total size of the country is about 4-5 times the size of Manhattan. After a good breakfast at the hostel of hard rolls, ham, fruit, jam, and coffee we headed over to the country and drove up the mountain, which was a pretty steep drive! We drove almost to the top and found a surprisingly reasonably-priced parking lot and then walked up to the castle from there. It is just one big tourist trap, but we actually liked it alot! The streets of the entire fortress were filled with all kinds of tourist shops, but we were surprised at how cheap things were! I don't think that the citizens have to pay many taxes, so they can afford to lower their prices. It was also very clean and not crowded at all. We spent several hours just walking around the maze of streets and looking in all of the little shops. We also walked to the top, where we had an amazing view of the surrounding Italian countryside for miles. That evening we went back to Villemarina and ate some fresh fruit and pizza from some street vendors for supper. Since it doesn't seem like they eat an awful lot of fruits and vegetables in the Czech Republic, the peaches I got tasted amazing! |
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