San Marino is a small but proud state that did not submit to the great empire
Despite its very modest size, the Republic of San Marino is the oldest European state. And if by the will of fate you ended up on the Apennine Peninsula, then by all means go and admire this most ancient republic on the planet.
So we came to look at this little miracle to admire the excellent panorama from the top of Mount Titano and get acquainted with the historical past of the freedom-loving people.
However, before we had time to get off the bus and rush up to the top of the mountain, the guide took us somewhere down. A winding alley led us to a shop selling various branded liqueurs, the fame of which spread far beyond the borders of the state.
In general, the tour began with the "Attraction of unprecedented generosity", in which everyone could participate.
In the process of this, we tried all the local drinks: "Tear of Christ" wine, "Afrika" liqueur and many other amarettes and limoncellos. A sommelier from Moldova, very deftly juggled bottles and honed his oratory skills on us, gesticulating and explaining to unreasonable townsfolk that only here, in their shop, you can buy the very “real” and “branded”, in all other institutions of the city we are cleverly they will cheat and give us a fake. And that only for our group he is ready to make a 10% discount, which is even unprofitable for him, and only out of respect for us. . . Further, I think it's understandable.
In general, the cost, for example, of a bottle of limoncello is 10 euros, the owner was inferior for 8 euros, and it is quite obvious that in all other shops you can successfully buy the same limoncello for seven, without even haggling. The positive moment was the tasting itself, so we had the opportunity to try everything, and even drink "for free". The tasting itself stole an hour of excursion time from us, but we are not offended - listening to a tipsy guide is much more interesting, however, climbing up is somewhat difficult, but we are not looking for easy ways. Let's go to the mountains! And as a reward we get stunning views from the top of Mount Titano.
True, why we climbed up, I understood vaguely, since the funicular was waiting for us on the observation deck. Probably in order to go down.
Due to some unsteadiness in our gait and lack of clarity of thought, we decided to abandon the descent and explore the surroundings from a height. Fortunately, the landscapes were amazing:
These beauties also came to survey the surroundings:
The time was approaching dinner, and already somehow I wanted to taste the bounty from local culinary specialists, but our guide, apparently deciding that it was not bread alone, enthusiastically began a beautiful story about a small but very proud state - the Republic of San Marino. I really wanted to hear everything, about everything, in every detail and to the end. But hunger, as they say, is not an aunt. Therefore, I will share with you what I heard and remembered (this is not for long, don't worry, there won't be many letters).
In general, there was such a Roman emperor Diocletian, who lived in the 4th century AD, known for his persecution of Christians and the absolute dominance of power. So, Saint Marino gathered a group of recalcitrant Christians and took refuge with them from the persecution of the emperor on Mount Titano. His last words were: "I leave you free from other people. " And this is how the tiny village got the status of a state. And to this day the republic remains neutral and independent. The area is only 60 square kilometers, and the population is only 32 thousand people.
An interesting fact is the presence of the only prison on the territory of the state, in which one prisoner is imprisoned. He gets food from nearby restaurants. I don't know, maybe it was a joke, or maybe it really was. And it is also a rich state, and the population lives quite comfortably. There are many emigrants from the countries of the former USSR, and we managed to start a conversation and chat with some of them. For example, a young man from Moldova sells liquor in a shop, moved his entire family, his wife with two children stays at home, only he works and his earnings are enough for them to pay for housing, food, clothes, and even to rest in Rimini, which is located on 10 kilometers from San Marino. The guy even bought himself an inexpensive car. He doesn’t even want to hear about returning to Moldova, he says that there are a lot of his compatriots here, and in general, everyone somehow settled down, mainly, of course, they work in trade and public catering.
Well, we are going to have a meal along the medieval streets of beautiful lanterns.
We chose a small authentic restaurant for a meal. We were lucky again with the waiter - he predictably turned out to be a representative of the Moldavian People's Republic : )
Italian cuisine dominates here. The menu includes the same canelloni, ravioli, tartellini, lasagna, various pizza pastas, and I also noticed that rabbit dishes are popular. We ordered a minestrone soup, after trying which my husband said: "Where is the meat? ". "What meat? It's vegetable soup! " - "Well, eat it yourself! ". Therefore, the soup was exclusively for me. Sprinkling a delicious crispy baguette with olive oil, I enjoyed a fragrant soup soup with a whole mountain of stewed vegetables. My husband ordered a rabbit tartellini, which I just tried, but I say it's delicious! Pizza ordered the usual "margarita", also turned out to be delicious. As for pizza, I noticed that the most delicious Italian pizza is, for some reason, a simple margarita. We wanted to try the local strong drink "Mistra", but after a free tasting, we were simply afraid and decided to limit ourselves to a lighter drink. We ordered local beer, which is brewed here, in the brewery at the restaurant. They took it unfiltered, the beer was incomparable - sweetish, smelling of fresh bread, mmm... (bill for everything, including tips - 30 euros).
In general, satisfied with the hospitality of the San Mariners from Moldova and Italian cuisine, they set off to survey the capital. The guide was no longer with us, and it was not clear where to look for him, so we walked where our random route lay? and looked at whatever they looked at. If they were interested in the object, they called on Google to help. Therefore, I will conduct a brief review of what I saw (from the interesting). I apologize in advance for some confusion in the sequence of the route and the clarity of the narrative, since I rarely drink hard liquor, but here I even caught courage.
The central and most noteworthy of all the sights is Freedom Square with the statue of the same name placed on it (the statue is somewhat to the left and above, in white):
I liked this format of relaxing on the balcony, so as not to go down anywhere, lie on your sun loungers and look at everyone from a height:
Or water the flowers on the balcony:
Walking around the city, I always try to include the main temple of the city in the walk. Here it was the Basilica of San Marino, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In appearance, the building style is neoclassical, modest, nothing remarkable.
There are eight columns of the Corinthian order inside. And under the altar is an urn with holy relics. The decoration of the church looks somewhat ascetic.
The organ does not shine with beauty, but it is still there.
You can climb the path to the tower - the fortress of Guaita. The hallmark of San Marino are its three ancient towers - Guaita, Montale and Chesta.
You can have a cup of coffee on the top of the mountain.
You can not climb anywhere at all and view the surroundings from the openings of the fortress walls.
And here is a crossbow shooting range (by the way, San Marino is the only state in the world that has a garrison of crossbow troops):
Walking around the city, we see many avant-garde monuments. Here, for example, are such unusually intertwined sculptures:
Or here is a monument to the victims of the bombing, where a mother is trying to save her child:
And this is a sculpture, I think, from the former USSR - two headless sculptures, that is, you don’t have to think and speak, everything has already been decided for them, and no one cares about their opinion:
And what handsome policemen are here, in identical suits to the needle. I could not resist and even from afar, but still captured them in the photo.
It should be noted that San Marino is a complete duty free, so most tourists here do not look at the sights, but do shopping. I also made some purchases for myself. First of all, we go to the leather goods market, we really wanted to bring an elegant bag from Italy. I chose two, for everything as a result of a short auction I paid 100 euros (I consider it inexpensive, since the quality of the product is high, plus two wallets as a gift).
Well, feeling that we had come to a more or less sober state in order to think sensibly and taste again, we found a store with a large selection of local liquors and a seller, you guessed it, from the Moldavian People's Republic, and began to help ourselves. The guy from Moldova turned out to be generous, opening the fridge bar, he poured us half a glass of various drinks, at the same time telling us what, why and why. In the process of drinking, the choice fell on 3 types of liqueurs: pistachio, chestnut and amaretto. But amaretto is not the traditional Italian amareto dis arono, the San Marino amareto has a much higher almond content and a thinner and more refined taste. And you won’t buy chestnut liqueur anywhere else, it’s their signature drink. But pistachio became our favorite - so we decided to take three bottles.
The fact is that San Marino does not export liqueurs, that is, they can only be bought directly on the territory of the republic. Therefore, as my husband did not resist, he still had to work as a loader and a pack donkey.
In general, a walk in San Marino became a beautiful continuation of Italian travels and brought a lot of positive emotions.
