How to spend a day in San Marino -

San Marino, a small republic, is located in Europe and fully surrounded by Italy. Although the republic is small, you can perfectly enjoy a day in San Marino as it features beautiful places which will positively surprise you. Last year, I enjoyed a long weekend in Italy & San Marino and in this post I’d like to tell you some more about one of the smallest destinations of the world.

About San Marino

There are many ways to explore San Marino. You can travel to the republic for a day, but you can also stay for the night (or some more). Most highlights in San Marino can be found in the capital named San Marino Città, so that makes it easy to explore most of the highlights in one day. It can be quite touristic in San Marino Città so keep this in mind. I’d recommend to visit the capital in the morning or late in the afternoon to avoid the biggest crowds. Arriving in the city is very structured as there are signs and parking places everywhere.

San Marino Città has a beautiful location on the mountain of Titano, so you can have some breath taking views over the state and Italy from many places. It features small, winding streets which makes it a cosy medieval city. You enter the walled city through one of the gates.

Where to go from?

It’s easy to plan a daytrip to San Marino as the republic is located in the middle of Italy. If you’re staying in, for example, Rimini or Bologna, you can easily reach San Marino by car or public transport. From Rimini it’s only a small driving distance of approximately 30 minutes. If you’re visiting San Marino from Bologna, you’ll drive around an hour and 40 minutes.

During my weekend in Italy and San Marino, I combined San Marino together with Bologna and Sirolo. Would you like to read more about our route and the places we’ve visited? You can find the post by clicking here.

What to explore?

You can find many unique places in San Marino which are worth a visit.

Piazza della Libertà

The Piazza della Libertà (the Freedom Square) is the most important and most visited square of San Marino. The square is thé place for the residents to celebrate their freedom and independence. Besides a beautiful view and some terraces, you can also find here the Statua della Libertà (the Statue of Liberty).

Palazzo Pubblico

The Palazzo Pubblico is the town hall of San Marino and can also be found at the Freedom Square. You can have a look the architecture, pay a visit to the hall or watch the changing of the Guard during the Summer.

The three towers of San Marino

The three towers, which you can find on top of the mountain and which are perfectly photogenic, are the symbol of San Marino. It used to be defense towers in the past, but now you can pay a visit to two of the three towers to learn more about the past and these defense towers.

A stamp of San Marino in your passport

A nice tip: if you like to collect stamps in your passport (like I do), you can receive one from San Marino at the tourist office for a small price of € 5,-.

Basilica di San Marino

This Catholic Church is the most important church of San Marino. When there are no services you can pay a visit to the church for free.

Besides the above highlights, San Marino also offers several museums and hiking/biking possibilities (not only in the capital but also in the rest of the republic). I would recommend to download the app Komoot for inspiration about what trails there are. Talking of Komoot, I’m going to write an article about this app, where I’m very enthusiastic about, later to give you some more information.

And of course there are many shopping and dining possibilities, especially in the city of San Marino.

Where to stay?

There also are options for when you’d like to stay in San Marino, like we did. As San Marino is very small, most accommodations can be found at a driving distance of 15 minutes from the capital. We stayed in Falciano, in a typical Agriturismo called Le Bosche. We had such a lovely stay at this Agriturismo! It’s definitely recommended to stay in a farmhouse when you’re in San Marino (or in Italy). These farmhouses are small accommodations (you can compare it with a B&B) located at a quiet and beautiful place from which the owners produce something; for example wine or vegetables. You can find more about Agriturismo Le Bosche by clicking here.

Have you been to San Marino before? What are your ultimate tips?

Author: Tamara

This article is part of the GPSmyCity iOS app. You can download it, read this article offline and obtain travel directions (by foot, car or bicycle) to the places mentioned in this article. Click here to download it.