The journey was fairly uneventful, though if you look at some of the action road shots Lorraine took you'll get a very good idea of Italian driving. In the cities, two wheeled transport will think nothing of driving on the wrong side of the road to move ahead and pass. On the highways, its the turn of the cars to do so. You'll see a series of photos of a car passing another car straddling the centre line passing a car with oncoming vehicles just moving to the side letting the driver through. I must admit, I tried it myself much to Lorraine's horror, no problem at all. Lorraine however does not have enough underwear for me to do it too often.
Coming into San Morino would be a motorbike riders delight and obviously is based on the amount of bikes parked. I have included a Google Map extract of the road, it looks tame, but it is not, for those that know Mailmans/Bygotts Road from Samford Road, its that little bit, but on steroids, times 100, narrower and a speed limit of 90km/h. For the moto readers, towards the end are some Ducatti pictures in a Piazza.
Now for San Marino. I cannot remember where I read it, but the person who said there is nothing to do here is an absolute fool. Okay, they said the views are awesome and that they are, the photos do not do them justice. But there are at least a dozen museums and shops galore, all VAT/Duty free. So when I said in a previous post we were done with shopping. Not so. We have the obligatory flag we always get from each country, we also collect fridge magnets and I collect shot glasses. Last year I bought a nice hat in Paris and some hat pins for it, so now I also buy hat pins. Of course that means I had to buy a hat for them. I swore I was not going to buy anymore hats, except maybe a couple of commemorative Giro caps. I now have an additional 7 hats/caps for my collection from this trip. The hat wall just got bigger. I also could not pass up on two more watches, a smart watch made in San Marino (so I am told) and a nice San Marino made timber framed watch with a very unique face that tells digital time in an analogue way. Both were at least 1/3 the price I have see them around the traps even accounting for currency conversion.
Following the shopping we walked up to the fort towers built around 700 years ago, some more shopping for our own private collectibles, a new suitcase to hold all of these souvenirs and then back to the room.
A nice romantic dinner in the hotel restaurant where the food was to die for. And then upstairs to watch the sun set. The thing that strikes us most in San Marino is how clean it is. Absolutely no litter, no rubbish, no graffiti, no street hawkers, no loud tourist groups, or for that matter not many loud tourists. San Marino is a hidden gem.
Reflecting on our holiday we are glad to have driven, having access to immediate and personal transports an being able to go off the beaten track and see the things we want to see when we want to see them has been awesome. Buses, trains and planes just do not offer that luxury. I will be honest, the one big advantage we have enjoyed is my disability. I know its sounds weird and maybe even crass, but being disabled does have advantages, parking for free in most places, unlimited not the least of them.
If we did this holiday again and in hindsight knowing what we know now. We would make the following changes:
- One extra day/night in Firenze.
- One less day/night in Milan, also avoid Milan on Saturdays, its nutso gridlock.
- One less day/night in Venice, 3 days is enough, two in Venice and one for the surrounding area.
- One extra day/night in San Marino, not for any other reason than to relax and take it in.
- We have the current wind down time in Rome simply because we love it and we missed the Pantheon and Spanish Steps last year.
Enjoy the pictures and Ciao.
Sean & Lorraine
Photos2017-05-26 San Marino + Road Trip
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