San Marino part two

As promised im going to tell you what we explored on our day in San Marino....it started off with a simple breakfast at our hotel, La Grotto. Some cold cuts, bread, yoghurts....what more can you ask....and i love the juice, blood orange, divine.....now before I tell you where and what we explored mazybe I need to tell you a little bit about San Marino. San Marino claims to be the oldest surviving sovereign state and constitutional republic in the world. There are about 32 000 inhabitants and about 64 square kilometres, in fact it is the fifth smallest independant country in the world.....so enough about facts......let me tell you about our day....

Ther are three main towers in San Marino, the 1st and 2nd towers one still has to pay entrance cause it has a small museum while the 3rd tower you can just view from the outside. The weather was not great, a little drizzle and a lot of fog, which made actually for some really cool pics....but before i start with pics....so Kim and i decided to do our tour backwards....meaning...starting at the 3rd tower....it was quite a walk uphill and a little through the forest, which was actually quite nice.....as mentioned before, the 3rd tower you could only see from outside and it was literally just a watch tower.

Third tower

After that it was a short walk to the 2nd tower, there either we could buy a single entrance ticket which would only include the 2nd tower, €4 or we could buy a combined ticket which included various sights including the 2nd and 3rd tower as well as the public palace and the church for €10, so we went for that one. The views from the 2nd tower were fab, and as mentioned before, the fog actually gave it quite a nice vibe, yes we would not see down into the valley, but so what. The museum was so so, some old armour and guns, not my interest, i prefered just walking around the fort and tower..and taking in the view....

View from 2nd tower: we can see 1st tower

View from the 2nd tower: we can see the 1st tower

The 1st tower again was a small walk away....again it had a small museum, which again for me did not tickle my fancy, but once again, walking around the fort and the tower and taking in the views, that i enjoyed....

Me on the 1st tower

View from 1st tower

View from the 1st tower: can see the 2nd and 3rd tower

Kim and i on the 1st tower

After that it was time to find some small local snack to eat....we spotted an outside terrance which specialized in local craft beer, so Kim wanted to try and i was sure they had a small bite to eat. I ordered a cappucchino and Kim a beer and we shared a small cold meat and cheese (served with "bread") platter.....the cappucchino was not very good, Kim said the craft beer was nice, but nothing special.....the cold meat and cheese platter was a good small snack....and always nice to try something from the region.....

Craft beer and local snack

Time to visit the public palace and church, the church i am not even go into it cause it was reakly nothing special at all, in fact it was a let down and a waste of time....the palace took us about 10minutes, nice to see, but again, nothing special....there at least we took some pics so i can share those.....

Inside the public palace

Outside the public palace

It was still quite early so we decided to hop into our sport car and drive a little around San Marino, explore a little.....the actual old town is quite small so why not explore the area around.....we started driving some scenic route and then a sign caught our eye....San Leo....the sign had a castle on it, it was again in Italy, but we thought....oooooh that looks quite interesting, so we headed there.....it was again a small old village with a few shops and restaurants and then high up there was this amazing castle, i said to Kim....no way I am climbing up there...and for once he was the one that pushed me, said excuse me, we are here of course we climb up....and up we climed the very very steep path way....as if i had not climbed enough in San Marino. Once we arrived, we paid the entrance and went inside, unfortunately because it was Monday the inside viewing of the castle was closed, so we were only allowed to view the fort, the garden and the church, i must say it was impressive though....

View from the town looking at the castle

San Leo castle

View from the top the castle down into the old town

Quite an amazing view from the castle into the old city. After that it was time for our famous aperitif, crodino for me (non-alcoholic) and Kim had a Corona, very Italian, NOT....and yes, we got yummie snacks, chips and salted peanuts.....divine.....after that it was time to head back to San Marino, but before we needed to stop at the supermarket to buy some wine made in San Marino, a Brugneto and also a sparkling wine....and then i needed to buy 2 traditional desserts.....torta Tre Monti (3 tower dessert made with choc and waffer) and torta Titano (also with choc and biscuit).....the torta titano was by far the better, it was a little soggy and also had some almond taste while the tre monti was like a choc waffer, too boring for me.....

Wine and desserts

Then back in San Marino it was dinner time.....pizza and caprese it was.....the pizza dough was too thick, which was a pitty, quatro stagioni was ordered, always funny to see that they literally divide the pizza into four sections, ham, artichokes, mushrooms and olives....dessert i wanted the two traditional desserts called Cacciatello, a dessert made with milk, sugar and eggs and the Bustrengo a cake made with honey, nuts and dried fruit....the restaurant at which we ate dinner did not have it, but i remembered the restaurant at which we had the first apertif had it....so we ventured there....and guess what, we just ordered some dessert.....we decided to try both.....and man they were nice....actually eating them together was delicious....so we managed to try some traditional things.....tomorrow we would be off on our way to Chianti...but first ill share a pic of pur pizza and our dessert....

Pizza and caprese