San Marino or Bust

Thursday, May 15th was a gloriously beautiful day and we decided to try again for San Marino. Elena wasn't feeling well and decided to stay home and rest while Michael, John, and I headed back towards Rimini and then up to San Marino. As most of you know, San Marino is the oldest and continuous independent country in the world and it sits within the Marche region. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Marino. They estimate that it was first established in 301 AD. It is perched high above on a mountain which clearly allowed to be safe!

Here is a photo of our first view of San Marino from the car and welcome sign a bit further up.

A few photos of the basilica:

And some views as we walked this ancient city/republic:

And a war memorial:

We arrived early and had the opportunity to walk around without a crowd but when about a million Italian school children arrived, we decided it was time for us to leave and stopped for lunch down below before heading back.

For our last evening together, we had picked up 3-4 pounds of small clams and a pound of mussels all for about 17 euros! Michael sauteed them with garlic, white wine, and olive oil and we had a feast eating outside and enjoying our final views of this magnificent country side.