My other two older children's families went to Florence today. We had been there before, and besides my husband showed more interesting about San Marino. It's about three hours away from our home base. So, we and the younger daughter and her husband went together to San Marino, a small mountain-top independent country surrounded by Italy. Because it is far away deep in the mountains, not too many international tourists know about this city state. It was founded in AD 301 as Republic of San Marino, the oldest sovereign state in Europe. It is only 24 sq miles in size with population of 33,600. Its constitution was written in Latin in late 16th century, its independence was recognized by the papacy then. It is among the wealthiest countries in the world in terms of GDP per capita. The country's economy mainly relies on banking, finance, tourism, and industry. This country is a member of United Nations but not a member of European Union, although using euro currency. I did not see any foreign embassy or immigration office in the city. The tourist office stamped our passport not for immigration issue but for souvenir purposes and charged us 5 euro. I guess it is part of the government income. We parked the car on a 2nd level parking lot and walked along the medieval streets of 3rd, 4th, 5th levels, then went up to the 6th level to see clifftop castle and towers. On the castle we saw the Adriatic sea on the east side. Below the city, you see many far away houses and mountains, it was a spectacular sight. It is a beautiful country. (8/23)
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| welcome to San Marino |
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| City gate |
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| tourist office center |
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| monument of speech to freedom |
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| far view of Adriatic sea on east side |
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