San Marino ’17

San Marino January 2017

A few months after my girlfriend and I moved to Bucharest for work in the summer of 2016, I had a realisation. I finally had two tools at my disposal that would allow me to act on a goal I set myself a year earlier – to visit as many European countries as possible. Having had the opportunity to already travel and live in a few European countries (and loving every second of it), I was excited to see how many countries I could visit while living in Bucharest. From the Bucharest airport, there were cheap flights being offered by three airlines: WizzAir, RyanAir and Blue Air. We already flew with Blue Air twice, to travel to Iași (Romania) and Lyon (France). For my trip to San Marino I flew with Ryanair to Bologna. I left Bucharest on a Friday evening after office hours at the end of January 2017.

From Bologna there was an easy airport bus to the train station, from where I took a train to Rimini. It only took me about 2 hours from the airport to get to Rimini. I already had a hostel booked, in a six-person dorm room near the beach and the center of Rimini. On my way there I started to talk with a few guys who were heading to the center too. Turns out, there was the annual Sigep Rimini happening in the same weekend I was in Rimini. Apparently, I was the weird one for coming to Rimini in this weekend and NOT going to this international exhibition of artisan production of ice cream, pastry, confectionery and bakery. I decided to stay in the hostel in Rimini for two nights (Friday – Sunday), so I could visit San Marino on Saturday.

On Saturday morning, I first headed to the beach. It was exactly as deserted as I thought it would be, and it left me wondering how busy the beach gets during the busy season. I grabbed some breakfast in the center of town and headed to the bus stop to get to Rimini. I paid the bus driver 5 EUR for the one-way trip (be sure to bring cash with you) and off I went. I ended up sitting behind a relatively small Asian girl in her twenties. An older gentleman kept trying to start a conversation with her, but I could tell she was not into it. The bus trip to San Marino took about 45 minutes and was enjoyable. We could see the hill of San Marino from far away, and the bus took us about halfway up the hill. We got dropped off and each of us (there were around 10 of us in the bus) went in a different direction. I had some trouble deciding whether to go left, right or go up the elevator next to the parking lot, as did the Asian girl. I ended up taking the elevator at the same time as she did and made some small talk. It was clear we were both alone on a trip and were intending on keeping it that way. The awkward thing was that there was only one way further up the hill to get into the center of San Marino. I was walking behind her for about 10-15 minutes, but of course kept my distance, as I did not want to make her feel like I was following her.

San Marino is such an interesting place! They never joined Italy, so they are still a separate country surrounded by Italy. The city itself is perched on the hill Monte Titano, where supposedly a Christian stonemason called Marinus built a chapel to live as a hermit in the year 306 AD. In January 2017, there were a few places open for business: some souvenir shops, some restaurants, and more weapon shops than I was anticipating filled with crossbows and the likes. Apparently, these kinds of things can be sold much easier in San Marino than in Italy. I carefully walked all the way up the hill in the snow. Getting to the top, I was blessed with amazing views all around. While there was zero snow in Rimini, there was fresh snow in San Marino. Feeling like I should go and get some lunch, I went back down to the streets where I saw some cafes and restaurants. I headed in, saw an empty table and sat down. As I sat down, I looked around and I saw the annoyed, or maybe even angry stare of the Asian girl. After following her earlier on the day, I just happen to sit on the table across from her by chance.

The food was not great, as I had high expectations from a country being surrounded by Italy. As I walked back down to the bus stop, I decided to buy something from the souvenir shop. My father used to collect all the different Euro coins (as they differ per issuing country), so I thought of getting him the San Marino collection. There were a few collections available, for different prices, in different kind of packages, ranging between 15 EUR and 50 EUR. Of course, I bought the cheapest one. Unbeknownst to me, a coin was missing from this collection and that was probably why it was about 10 EUR cheaper than the next package. Google has not helped me in finding out why anyone would sell a Euro coin collection of San Marino Euros, but not include the 10-eurocent coin. I only discovered this after giving it to my father (I mean, I never even doubted that a coin could be missing), after which I was asking everybody who was going to Italy to check their wallets for a 10 euro cent coin from San Marino. This was fruitless of course, but luckily my uncle went to San Marino a year later and was able to pick up a 10-eurocent coin for an amount I prefer not to disclose here.

After buying the San Marino collection, I decided to treat myself to a real Italian(ish?) meal and headed for a ‘real’ restaurant where I got an espresso and some pasta. Having seen only the top of the hill and the center of San Marino but fulfilled and accomplished I headed back to Rimini. I met a few guys the previous night in the hostel but could not find them when I got back. They were probably all talking about ice cream and confectionery at the expo. I went to find the best looking (budget) restaurant in Rimini. I had an amazing dinner at Ristorante Vecchia Stazione and went back to the hostel after a few Italian beers. Being Dutch, a lot of the conversations while travelling very quickly lead the topic of conversation to football. In my hostel room there were a few Italians and a Tunisian guy, and we finished the evening drinking some beer and talking about the best sport in the world. I feel like talking about football makes it so easy to connect with others, it is almost cheating.

On Sunday, I got on the train back to Bologna, but I had a few hours left before the plane would leave in the late afternoon. The train was passing Imola, where back in the day they were hosting the “San Marino Grand Prix” or “Italian Grand Prix”, depending on the year. It is named after the founder of Ferrari (Enzo), and I thought it would be great to have a look there in the museum. However, in the train I was sitting across an Italian girl who convinced me to check out Bologna instead. She insisted that it was much more worth my time. I could have Pasta Ragout there and see some interesting stuff, instead of wasting my time going to an outdated circuit where they would never race F1 again (her words, paraphrasing). In case you did not hear the news, they raced this circuit again in 2020, when the F1 calendar was altered due to the COVID-pandemic. The train I was on had some delay, so I ended up walking around aimlessly in Bologna not sure where to go. I ended up just getting a coffee and a burger at McDonald’s (yes, I do regret this), and afterwards got on the bus back to the airport.