San Marino

Sunday, Nov 3
For one of our last days before we have to leave Italy, we decided to leave Italy! We spent the day in San Marino, the tiny republic within Italy that has been sovereign since gaining independence from the Roman Empire in 301AD.  Apparently when Garibaldi ran around unifying Italy, he gave San Marino a favor and allowed the city-state to remain independent. Talk about your campaign debts! The only difference to the traveler is a lower VAT (tax on goods), so a lot of folks go there to shop. They speak Italian, have an open border (no passport check), use Euro, and the entire county is only 24 square miles. Their claim to fame: the oldest surviving sovereign state and constitutional republic in the world. Evidently, they have a seat at the UN, interesting.
The best part of visiting San Marino city are the castles.

City of San Marino in the country of San Marino

Perched on the very pinnacle of the mountaintop, the city has 3 medieval castles and a path that connects them. Built in the 1200's, they have been beautifully restored. Great photo op's all around. Only negative was that the wind was blowing so hard, we felt we could have been blown off the mountain.

Last great tourist pose

We stated our hike going up to Castle #3, the smallest of the 3.  Bit of a climb, but hey, we have hamstrings of steal!

Climb to the top

Castle #3

From there we went onto #2.  We went into the tower to see an awesome exhibit of medieval armor-Jordan would have loved this one!

Armor inside castle #2

Great display

Hiked over to #1, the largest of the three, and up into that tower. Great 360 degree view.

Guaita, castle #1

View looking back to castle #2

Climbing the towers 

Great views 

Then we made our way down to the main piazza for a great lunch and I thought since we'd be leaving for home soon, I'd have a last Italian pizza. A word about eating pizza in Italy:

NOT like this....

...like this!!