San Marino surrounded by Italy
 

Sometime back before I left for Italy in April, some TOTVer asked about whether anyone has visited San Marino, an independent country for hundreds of years. Well I did go this go around which now became my 70th country and territories to visit. Unless you want to add to your collection of new countries visited like me, I would't bother visiting. This is not Monaco. It is up on a hill with a castle which is the old section with few restaurants and gift shops. The rest of new city is below the hill and nothing much to see. If you want to see hill places, choose Assisi, Cortona, Orvieto etc. or any number of hill towns in Tuscany. San Marino takes about 45 min. from the Italian seaside city of Rimini. The bus leaves from near Rimini train station. Since the population of San Marino is so small most of the sales girls and waitresses I met come from Russia or from Soviet Blocs. Don't know what kind of deals they have. That was a surprise.

Thanks, Yorio. That was me. Not sure what got me interested in San Marino in the first place.