The journey to San Marino was a little bit stressful and complicated. It required more planning than usual, but nothing I couldn’t handle, and an overnight stay in San Marino was something I wanted to do while exploring Italy. First, we had to take a train from Florence to Bologna, then we took a train from Bologna to Remini and in Remini, we took a bus that took us up the hill to the city centre of San Marino.
It took us about four hours of travelling to get to one of the smallest cities in the world, but the journey was worth it. We had a hotel booked right on top of the hill, so we had to hike there for a while, but the view was beautiful! The countryside reminded me a lot of my country, the Czech Republic, so being there felt very familiar and cosy.
The weather was a little bit colder than in Italy, but it was a nice change from the summer heat. We hiked to all Three Towers of San Marino. We passed a fair amount of tourists (and also people on bikes) on our way there, bought a few souvenirs, enjoyed a nice, quick coffee and then headed out for dinner.
On our way to a restaurant, we watched the sundown. It was one of the most beautiful sundowns I had ever seen, maybe because the city was so quiet. There were little to no people outside, no traffic sounds and no other distractions. Just a beautiful view and us.
The restaurant we picked for our dinner is one I will never forget. It felt like a family restaurant, with all kinds of people inside, from construction workers to couples like us, and it was incredible! The lady who was taking care of our table made the experience unforgettable. She barely spoke any English and we couldn’t understand her Italian, but she was one of my favourite people we’d had the chance to meet in Italy.
We ordered steaks and red wine. It was the best meal I have ever had so far on our trip and it started my obsession with meat! The steaks were juicy, the wine tasty and our dessert fantastic. It was a perfect way how to end our day in San Marino. What started as a simple bucket list item, ended up being one of my favourite trips!
