Crossing the Christmas Rubicon

San Marino's morning sunshine and clear blue skies made as perfect a day as you could expect in December. We decided to walk the Passo della Streghe, the fortress wall path that links San Marino's three fortress towers. Imagine our surprise to discover that this walk is a Camino- the Cammino del Santo Marino!

We've walked a lot of Europe, on Caminos or city walls and paths; but without a doubt, San Marino's fortress path is the most stunning walk of all. With its sheer mountain drop, views over the rolling green valley, and the castle towers jutting off the rock cliffs, it feels like the setting for a fairy tale. I've never seen anything like it, and on such a gorgeous day it was breathtakingly beautiful.

We met up with Rey-Rey on the other side of the Old Town, which houses the annual Christmas market. At the risk of repeating myself...I've never seen a Christmas market like San Marino's. The wooden huts selling mulled wine and Christmas ornaments bordered the cliff edge, with gorgeous views, and an ice rink was fitted into a rock cliff wall. We also discovered the magic of a Bombardino, an Italian winter beverage that is like hot eggnog with brandy and whipped cream. Oh yes please.

San Marino's Christmas markets offered a game: visitors are given a postcard with spaces for stamps, and for each Christmas market location visited, like the ice rink or Santa's village, you receive a stamp. Once your postcard has all its stamps, you then return to the Christmas market, and redeem the postcard for a small prize. I love this shit, and so we each dutifully got our cards stamped, and expected a typical prize like a candy cane or some stickers (I am apparently a 12-year-old at heart). So imagine our shock to each receive jewelry- specifically, a silver charm in a Tiffany-like bag.

That, my friends, says all I need to say about this insanely rich country.

And on that note, we said ciao to San Marino, and headed back to Bologna.

On the drive back, I noticed our toll receipt listed the region as "Valle de Rubicone." A quick internet search confirmed that this was indeed the Rubicon River crossed by Julius Caesar in 49 BC, essentially declaring war on Rome, and creating the phrase "crossing the Rubicon" (meaning "the point of no return"). Being an unapologetic trivia and history nerd, I was so excited I literally clapped with glee. So the next time someone makes a reference to "crossing the Rubicon," I will be sure to say that I've done it in a rental car, and didn't have a problem.

We returned the rental car in Bologna, and taxied to our AirBnB.
After much-needed naps, we set out to have a Bolognese aperitivo before dinner. But I have to say: after San Marino, Bologna felt WAY too full of people.

We had aperitivo at Botiga Bottle, a wine bar that uses debit cards to access vacuum-sealed wine bottles. You load the debit card, then the tasting machines pour wine samples, and the bar offers free food to accompany the wine tasting. We plundered their wine cellar until it was time for dinner at Bologna's historic Ristorante Diana.

Ristorante Diana has been a fixture in Bologna since 1920. It's one of those linen-tablecloth, dark-wood-walls places in Europe that has served the same menu for 100 years. It's also a bit off-putting; it was obvious that the staff could not be bothered with us, and the house specialty- a shit ton of boiled meats, served tableside on a trolley- was frankly kind of gross. But I ordered mortadella-stuffed tortellini in truffle sauce, Matt ordered a cut of beef in truffle sauce, and Rey-Rey ordered turkey in truffle cheese sauce, and truffles make everything amazing (though at this point I would kill for a green vegetable).

We had post-dinner coffees at a tiny bar near our AirBnB, and rolled our full bellies home.Читать далее