The Remarkable Views from San Marino

Written By: The Planet D

Who has heard of San Marino? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. We hadn’t heard of it either. We thought that San Marino was a town in the Emilia Romagna region of Italy

We didn’t realize then that it was its own nation and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I don’t know how many UNESCO designated places Dave and I have been to, but I know that San Marino is a place that definitely deserves the title.

About San Marino

San Marino is considered to be one of the wealthiest countries in the world per capita.

It only has about 30,000 citizens within its small radius of  61 square km but they all do very well in tourism, industry and finance.

Way back in 301 AD a monk from Rab, Croatia named Marinus of Arba came to this mountain with his friend Leo to escape persecution.

Marinus performed some miracles and developed a following, built a church and a community was born.

San Marino boasts the world’s oldest surviving sovereign state in the world, with a constitution dating back to the 17th century.

Check out Andorra, another tiny sovereign country in Europe

Where is San Marino?

san marino hills
San Marino Castle sits high on a hill

San Marino is tiny sovereign nation surrounded by Italy.

The Italian Apennines to one side, and the Adriatic coast to the other, with views that are out of this world

If you haven’t seen the Italian Apennines, you should.

We’ve decided that they have much more charm than Tuscany and are equally beautiful.

As one local said to us, “We don’t call it Toscana anymore, the English have taken it over so much, even the Italians call it Tuscany!”

If you want the real Italy, go to the Apennines instead. We loved it there.  See our article Italian Hospitality in the Apennines.

With that said, the views from San Marino are a delight to see.

The Views from San Marino

san marino overlook
Looking out over Italy towards the Adriatic Sea

Sadly for us, when we arrived the city was shrouded in cloud and spewing with rain.

We knew there was a view out there somewhere, but we just couldn’t see it.

Lucky we spent two days in San Marino because by the time the sun started to set, the heaven’s opened up and treated us to a spectacular scene.

Everyone in our party agreed that San Marino has the most beautiful view from a city in the world.

san marino sunset
Even in the rain, the view from San Marino is striking

Sitting atop rolling hills and standing at 700 metres high on Mount Titano, San Marion offers panoramic views for miles around.

Each time we caught a glimpse from the city walls, our breath was taken away.

It didn’t matter which side we looked from, it was pure beauty. So we thought we’d share some of that beauty with you. Enjoy!

San Marino Passport Stamp

san marino deb passport
Deb Get’s her passport stamp at San Marino

San Marino is famous for its duty-free shopping and we saw many women walking out with brand name purses and jewelry in hand.

We then hopped over to the Tourist Office to get our passport stamped.

No matter how much you travel, it’s always fun getting a stamp in the passport, especially when you didn’t expect it

A few days earlier, we didn’t even know that San Marino was its own nation. And what a nation it is.

During the rainy afternoon, we walked with umbrellas in hand through the narrow vehicle-free streets and peeked in the shop windows.

San Marino Castle

san marino building
Church of San Marino

We took a tour of the castle, which is now the government buildings, to learn all about San Marino and how it was founded.

Learning about their government was fascinating.

It is no wonder that it prides itself on being a nation representing peace and freedom.

San Marino Government – Two Heads of State

cafe
San Marino Square and Government Offices in Old Castle

They don’t have one Head of State, but two.

Known as Captains these officials are elected or re-elected every six months and if they don’t do a good job, citizens can file a complaint against them.

Oh, how I’d love to be able to file a complaint against our Prime Minister Harper. He’s got some ‘splainin’ to do!

How to Get to San Marino

  • San Marino can be reached by bus from Rimini.
  • Trenitalia has regular trains to the coastal town of Rimini where you can catch a local bus to San Marino.
  • If you drive, you can leave your car in Borgo Maggiore located at and catch the cable car up to San Marino, a fun ride with gorgeous views.
  • For more information on San Marino, go to Visit San Marino.com

This is a BlogVille campaign, created and managed by iAmbassador in partnership with the Emilia-Romagna tourism board, ThePlanetD maintains full control over what we choose to write.

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About The Planet D

Dave Bouskill and Debra Corbeil are the owners and founders of The Planet D. After traveling to 115 countries, on all 7 continents over the past 13 years they have become one of the foremost experts in travel. Being recognized as top travel bloggers and influencers by the likes of Forbes Magazine, the Society of American Travel Writers and USA Today has allowed them to become leaders in their field.

Leave a Comment

24 thoughts on “The Remarkable Views from San Marino”

  1. Thank you for this beautiful and exciting pictures of my country.
    I’m a sammarinese who lives in UK and I have a fb group for people of San Marino living abroad.
    We are really appreciating them! Compliments! 🙂
    Cheers
    Cristina

    Reply
  2. Amazing photos! Hadn’t thought of visiting San Marino before but you definitely made me add this beautiful place to my list of places to visit!

    Reply
    • Glad we could entice you to add it to your list! It’s pretty much one of the prettiest cities we’ve ever visited. Just sitting on the top of that hill alone is amazing.

      Reply
  3. Wow. Wow. Wow. I certainly wouldn’t mind living in a city with that kind of view! And the history! What a great place you discovered. It looks like a really amazing place to spend some days wandering around and just exploring…

    Reply
    • It is worth spending a few days. The views are amazing and the surrounding country side is beautiful. There’s a great fort there too. I wonder if it is possible to move there or if you have to be an existing resident. Hmmm.

      Reply
  4. We will be in Italy in a few months, can’t wait to stop off here!

    The photo of the Church is incredible.

    Reply
    • We have been to Andorra yes. It was another place that we didn’t know much about before going and yet another one that blew us away. Andorra was amazing for hiking. You can do hut to hut hikes there I think that this part of Italy and San Marino would be excellent for hiking as well.

      Reply
  5. It looks amazing there. I had only heard of it because I follow baseball in Italy and they have one of the best teams there.

    Reply
    • I didn’t know that. We don’t get a lot of European sports in Canada, so we hadn’t heard of it before. Very cool that they have a strong baseball team.

      Reply