Wednesday

13th September
We leave Hotel Bellavista, heading south to San Marino and the sun is shining! San Marino is a state enclosed by north-central Italy, it's famous for its medieval walled old town and it is one of the richest countries in the world with low unemployment and a highly stable economy. The capital city is also called San Marino, Mount Titano part of the Appenine range dominates the landscape and three towers sit on the mountain slopes; Montale, Guaita & De la Fratta. We drive through Rimini into San Marino and after dropping our bags at Hotel Rossi we set out to explore the area. It is absolutely fascinating, we leave the car and take a lift up the mountainside where there are cobbled streets and old buildings with fantastic views from the top.
We decide to eat in the hotel restaurant tonight and what a lively experience it turns out to be, for a Wednesday night it is extremely busy with people coming and going continuously & everyone knows everyone else. (Except us)! We eat lasagne and a fairly decent bottle of house red. There is a long table set for a group of people with several homemade banners " senza del dima" translates as "without smoke", we don't know what that means there is also a buffet set out for a crowd. We hear a lot of noise around midnight but we soon get off to sleep again.Read more