San Marino, not San Marino 🇻🇦

Country number 12 was originally meant to be San Marino but the 7 hour return journey was a little too much for being still under the weather and so it remains uncharted territory for the moment.

Determined not to fail at the first hurdle and miss out on my 30 needed to complete the challenge, it dawns on me that another microstate country lies just over an hour away- Vatican City. I spend the evening booking tickets and the next morning hop on the train to Rome.

Although contained completely within the borders of Rome, Vatican City has been its own city state since 1929 when it gained its independence from Italy. With under 50 hectares of land and under 500 people occupying its borders, it’s the world’s smallest country by both land and population. It has its own post office, stamps, euros and it’s a country with no taxes, whose economy is fuelled entirely by selling tourist souvenirs, museum entrance fees, and donations. It’s also the only country on the planet to never have granted women suffrage and has the highest crime rate per capita of any country in the world due to the number of pickpockets and tourist targeted crimes that take place on Vatican soil. It’s an incredibly interesting little country.

Once I check off all the sights of the Vatican, I manage to find my favourite pizzeria from when I was in Rome years ago, and then I hop on the train back to Florence to pack for the onward journey to France tomorrow. So despite being ill, Florence hasn’t been a complete flop.Read more