Making the most of some free hospitality in Milan, we spent 2 days being treated to copious amounts of pasta, meat, cheese and bread (also wine, wasted on me). I've been here twice before, but never taken any photos - so finally had the opportunity to take some snaps of the spectacular Duomo one evening, while we stuffed our faces with pizza in the cathedral square.
Crucially, I took an extra few days off to set out on a personal adventure, ticking a few more European stops off my travel list: San Marino and the Cinque Terre national park - first up, a trek across the country to the independent principality and tax haven that is San Marino...
This was a very long day trip from Milan, which took me through Bologna and Rimini (stopping off for a walk through the town to see the ancient Roman sites of the Tiberius bridge and Augustus Arch).
Thankfully nowhere near peak holiday season, when large crowds can descend on the tiny principality of San Marino, and temperatures can be in the stcky 40s, this was an ideal time for me to complete my personal set of all 7 European principalities - Andorra, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, and Vatican City were already trailing in my dust. San Marino was a worthwhile addition - the smallest principality of all, where you can see all of the key tourist sights in a few hours, but spectacular scenery and panoramic views.
Tourism here focuses on a specific region of San Marino, high up where the 3 highly photogenic towers are placed. Long winding, traffic-free, narrow roads carry you though a myriad of tax free shops (a haven for visiting Russian tourists), and cafes simply begging visitors to load up on yet more carbs, meat and cheese. All very reasonably priced - after several hours hiking to the 3 towers, and climbing to their rooftops for spectacular scenic views, plus vists to the armoury and torture museum, I finally succumbed to the charms of a restaurant with an open terrace looking out over the surrounding snowy mountains.
For 16 euros, I feasted on a 3 course meal. In keeping with true Italian tradition, no lunch is ever 'light'; the starter alone was a plate of meat pasta big enough to fill any grown man. 2 courses later (plus a seemingly infinite amount of bread), I waddled slowly down the hill, to begin my very long bus and train trek to Milan. Time for a few hours precious sleep, before another crazy trek cross - country, in the other direction...