Planning for San Marino:
I planned my visit to San Marino from Florence by driving in a rental car. I spent around 2 hours on top of the mountain in this country. It is the other landlocked country in Italy other than the VATICAN CITY. People here speak Italian. I visited San Marino in July 2023.
Driving to San Marino:
I reserved my car on carrentals.com. This website was quoting me relatively lower price of 73.18$ on the car compared to the price, I was paying for car rental on Capital One portal or Chase Portal. But one silly mistake I made cost me double the money for the rental. I didn’t notice that I reserved a manual transmission car and not automatic. Since I am not used to driving manual transmission cars, I had to upgrade to Automatic transmission for which the cost was 80€ extra on top of the car rental amount I was already paying. In total one day car rental cost me 164€, which was equivalent of 170$. So, I learnt my lesson, to check into the details of my reservation, when I find big discrepancies in the price quotes on different websites.
I read about parking issues in San Marino specially at the top of the mountain, so I parked my car at the cable car parking lot. From there, I took the cable car to the top of Mountain to visit San Marino. The round trip on cable car cost me 5€. The Car parking price was 1.5€ for 1 hour of parking.
Accommodation:
I was staying in Hilton Garden Inn in Florence and took a rental car to drive to San Marino and Venice the same day. Booked this place with 40,000 Hilton Honors Points + 7€in city taxes. As I hold Hiton Honors Gold status with Hilton Honors Surpass Credit Card, I chose to get complimentary breakfast at the hotel.
Boots on the Ground:
All the attractions in San Marino are on the Mountain top. There are 3 towers here on Monte Titano. Monte Titano, is the highest Point with spectacular views. All 3 towers are located at the highest points on this mountain. The first tower is called Guaita Fortress. This fortress is accessible to general public, where I saw some people dressed in traditional costumes. The second tower is called Cesta Tower and the third is called Montale tower.
There is a cathedral on the way to tower 1 and it’s called Basilica of the Saint.
Public Square called Palazzo Pubblico and Piazza della Liberta is used for events, performances and gatherings. There is a published schedule of all the events and performances that happen in the public square.
Additionally, there is a state museum (Museo di Stato), national gallery, Museum of Curiosities, Museum of stamps and Coins in San Marino.
The scenic views from top of mountain are picture perfect and would stay in one’s memory for long time.
Conclusion:
I was not expecting much from this small country in Italy, when I set out on my journey here. Incidentally I was stunned by the amazing scenery that I could view from the top of the mountains in San Marino. Getting to this country is quite a challenge as the buses to San Marino are sparce and not very frequent. There is a bus that goes from Rimini and takes 30 minutes to reach San Marino. After exploring this country, I would say using a rental car for the visit will make everything easy.
