San Marino

I wrote this email to a friend about a trip we took in October, 2001.

We went to San Marino yesterday. San Marino is a country inside of Italy. It is the oldest and smallest Republic in the world. It is a beautiful country. The story is that Marino was a stone cutter that moved to the mountain, which is now the country of San Marino, in about the 4th century AD because he was exiled by the Roman Emperor for being a Christian. Soon several other stone cutting Christians from the area moved there as well and they built a church out of stone and worshiped there in peace. A wealthy Roman woman found out about them and was sympathetic to Christians and gave the mountain to Marino. He was later made a bishop and upon his death he willed the mountain to the people.

They built a city of stone up and around the mountain. It is beautiful. The people there are very kind and proud. One must be born in San Marino of San Marino parents to be a citizen. They are very different from the Italians, they have their own money, government, police, license plates etc. But this country is a mountain completely surrounded by Italy. It is along the Eastern side of Italy about a quarter of the way down, just below the city of Rimini, which is a very big tourist spot.

San Marino is about a four hour drive, so we left at 6am and got there around 10am, we toured the top of the mountain which is the down town area of San Marino, the old part of town. Lots of churches, statues and history. Along the way up we saw what looked like America, there were so many stores. We saw a McDonald's which was as big as a apartment building. Then after our tour we selected a beautiful restaurant for lunch. It was at the very top of the mountain and we were seated in the corner, with a panoramic view of Italy. It was breath taking. The lunch was very expensive, but it was pretty much all the money we spent that day so what the heck.