San Marino has always been on the list. With Vanuatu and Moldova both canceled, San Marino suddenly became country #103 and almost immediately ceased to be. After landing in Italy I thought my travel-related problems had finally gone. But life isn’t done with me yet. You don’t want travel-related problems? Let’s give you work-related problems. Laptop died. In the end the hot chocolate damaged the motherboard and the video card after all. 15 days to repair. Dilemma. To make matters simple, I bought a new laptop and transplanted the hard disk there, after which I boarded a bus to San Marino to unwind.
It’s just that in times like this I usually just sulk in my room and curse everything, everyone, all at once. This usually calls for an obligatory free day just to give me enough breathing room. But come on. Vanuatu was supposed to be #103. Canceled because of the typhoons. Moldova then was supposed to be #103. Immigration did not let me in. Now that it’s San Marino’s turn, the pattern became clear. What the fuck is up with not letting me up my effing country count? That’s why I pushed through with San Marino despite being depressed AF. Now that it is finally #103, I hope this fvcking curse has been broken.
Going to San Marino is rather straightforward and can be done as a daytrip from Bologna. In my case, I decided to set up camp in Rimini because who doesn’t want a beachfront hub, right? Exiting Rimini’s train station, you will immediately see a Burger King across the street. The place where you buy the bus ticket is to the left of the store next to Burger King. In short, two doors left. One way is EUR6 (~PHP360). Return trip is EUR 12 (~PHP720). The cashier gives you a receipt with two QR codes. The one for departure has a fixed time according to the time table. The return trip is flexible.
The current time table can be seen here: https://www.bonellibus.it/data/linee/orari/rimini_sanmarino_nov22agg.pdf. The next departure from San Marino to Rimini right AFTER you arrive in San Marino is just a really short 30 minute interval which will not give you enough time to explore the world’s oldest republic. Your best bet is the next departure after that, which gives you around 2 hours and a half of sightseeing time. If that won’t suffice, you can always take the next departure after that. Since it was raining most of the time, 2 ½ hours were enough for me.
Take the elevator from the bus parking area to get to street level. The main gate to the walled city will be to your left if you are facing the mountain. This is easy to find because you will see a traffic enforcer right across the main entrance with the beautiful Windows wallpaper background of green fields and hills right behind him or her. Once you enter the walled town, you just explore every narrow alley you can find and you will be sure to stumble upon random photo ops. There are signboards aplenty pointing towards the direction of the three towers as well as some churches here and there.
The three towers are Guaita, Cesta, and Montale. The three are on the same mountain range with considerable hiking distance from one another. If you want to check out each of them, you need a day pass that costs EUR6 (~PHP360) for two towers or EUR9 (~PHP540) for three. Since it was raining hard by the time I reached Guaita, it was rather pointless to buy that ticket, so I was already ok just taking photos from the outside. Cesta was closed for maintenance when I went while I never got to see Montale anymore as the rain and fog further intensified.
If medieval towers are not your thing, then you can just get lost in the walled town. The tourist office is where you can get an official San Marino passport stamp for EUR5 (~PHP300). Many shops sell affordable souvenirs and there are also a couple of restaurants open if you get hungry. Wandering about, I ended up in a small square with a curious looking square overlooking the green fields of San Marino’s neighboring municipalities downhill.
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