Montale Tower

As I mentioned in an earlier entry, I have a weird obsession with the European microstates which is why I broke my journey in Rimini to visit San Marino, which is my third microstate after Vatican City and Monaco. Now I only have Andorra and Liechtenstein to go. Although not considered microstates, I also have a weird obsession with Malta and Gibraltar so I may undertake a microstate tour sometime in the future.

Despite noise from the street, I had a decent sleep at Hotel Napoleon. I chose this accommodation because it is very close to the train station and next to the San Marino shuttle bus stop. After consuming my complimentary breakfast, I boarded the San Marino bus which deposited me at the city wall a little under an hour later.

My first impression of San Marino was that is was full of tacky touristy shops. There were so many perfume shops, which left me gagging a little. There were also a number of gun and weapons shops as San Marino has some of the most relaxed gun laws around.

I knew the walled city had three towers. I took a few minutes to orientate myself before I decided to go to the farthest and least visited one - Montale - to the south and then make my way north to the other two.

There was hardly anyone on the path to Montale. I got there after about 15 minutes of walking from the main town. It turned out to be a single tower with no access to the interior. It must have snowed recently in San Marino because there was snow piled up on the sides of the roads and pathways.

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