San Marino

I know i said ill write about Italy....well almost....we arrived in Florence from where we rented a car and guess what we rented.....We rented a Fiat 500....when Kim booked for us it said there are no convertibles, so we rented a normal one...however, we thought we would take a chance when we were at the counter and asked whether they had a convertible....and guess what....we were lucky....they had one.....that was such exciting news.....we packed our little Fiat with all our luggage...well Kim packet it all very skillfully and amazingly it all fitted and actually quite easily....what a pleasant surprise...and also, the space for the two front people, quite luxurious...another surprise.....then time to start our journey to San Marino. Kim chose some scenic route to get there rather than the highway which I thought would be nice.....but first challenge was to get out of Florence, cause we did not wanna hit the highway....and man Florence has so so so many one-ways, did i say many, yes definitely.....i was the navigator with our great application CityMaps2Go (which does not require internet and tells you exactly where you are and how you are driving, live feeding), Kim was the driver. Well it took us some time to get out, funny the two way streets we were almost certain were one ways cause they were so damn narrow that only one car could fit, around the bend we had to hoot to ensure that no one was coming around the bend at the same time as us.....and yes, once or twice we had to reverse a little to let someone pass...what an experience....we really thought that was entertaining....after 1 hour of touring Florence we finally made it out.....and i must say, we were quite the team, driver and navigator.....of course Kim had his 50c also in the navigation......

We took the SR70 towards Pontassieve and then continued on that road to Bibbiena.....on the way our tummies started to rumble so we believed it was time to find something to eat...and what did we want...pizza....so on the SR70 maybe 20km before Poppi we saw this sign that said Cupola Ristorante Pizzeria....aperto....so we turned, the restaurant literally looked like a cupola (dome) and inside was rather big and it had locals....menu was in Italian only which we thought was great, then again I really do not think you get many tourists out there....Kim and i decided to have a porcini and proscuitto cotta pizza (ham and porcini mushrooms), man, it was so damn good....and cheap....but wow....it was exactly what he had craved...amazing...and yes, of course I have a pic.....

Our huge pizza

Inside

After that...time to continue our drive....of course we stopped on the way for some ice cream, i needed the toilet desperately so we stopped at some arb village where somehow there was a German old Porsche gathering, it was a small cafe/bar hole in the wall, so there was no home-made ice cream, so it was some sandwich type ice cream from the freezer.....very nice though....so no complaints......

Our little Fiat

We had quite a few more stops, another one for ice cream, where we actually got the real deal for the sandwich type ice cream, so damn good, yes, not the home-made gelateria yet, but we were sure that would come soon enough, so for now the sandwich type ice creams were good enough...

Sandwich type ice cream

We also stopped and went up some arb side roads into villages that looked like ghost villages....one was called Gattara

There was abandoned houses and a church, the view was fantastic...but the rest seemed like a ghost village....quite strange....but i must say, the old houses, the style, it is beautiful, driving in the country side it was stunning, i loved the scenery and we enjoyed every moment of the really windy roads towards San Marino.....

Old abandoned structure

Me in Gattara

Kim in our 500c

River running through Gattara

Arrival in San Marino was around 4pm, was a really pleseant and slow drive....taking in the countryside. The actual town of San Marino, where we were staying, one cannot access with cars, so one has to park outside and then take luggage to the hotel. Kim knew that so we booked a hotel in the walking area but we checked out some car parks before hand.....so actually our hotel was like 100m from one of the many car parks, which was great. The hotel, La Grotta, simple and clean, nothing wrong with it at all, and definitely good value for money, would we stay there again, yes definitely. We dropped luggage and then went for a stroll around San Marino, very small and quaint.

Me in San Marino

Kim in San Marino

The views were amazing from up there...let me share some pictures....

View as approaching San Marino

View approaching San Marino

View from San Marino

Me in San Marino

After walking around nlittle and exploring a little it was time for aperitif..which for me of course was non alcoholic....Sanbitter, very similar to campari which I LOVE and Kim had a local beer, which had a very interesting bottle....with aperitif, there are always some snacks.....Salted goodies and green olives which were fab....i love this whole aperitif thing...definitely a thing i like doing every night when in Italy.....

Aperitif

Dinner we decided to go to one of the restaurants, Kim ended up having milanese, which is a crumbed schnitzel and i ended up having a caprese salad, the good old tomato and mozzarella.....the portions were huge....the bread served with it....like the Italians, it definitely lacked salt....damn...oh well i guess that is why i ended up dipping it in amazing olive oil with salt.....dinner was good, but nothing to rave about.....tomorrow its about exploring San Marino which of course includes food and the three towers, but more about that in my next blog...for now cheers.....

 

 

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