Vintage San Marino

Sue

As we drove closer to San Marino, we all started saying, "Did she REALLY say "the NATION" of San Marino?? And that's exactly what it was: It's full title is "The Republic of San Marino". John will do doubt tell you of its history. It's set high on a mountain, with the most glorious view and was yet another treasure chest waiting to be opened for us! It was our nicest hotel by far - VERY upmarket! - and it was exciting to follow the ...

We are on our last day in Rimini, and we're both quite glad of it. Not that we haven't had a good time (though the hostel has been a bit rubbish).

The journey down here from Munich was a real slog! It took 8 hours, though that didn't really bother us too much. 8 hours of discomfort on a cramped Italian train however, that was what made it difficult. It was a compartment style train (6 seat per compartment, 3 on each side facing each other) which seemed great when we first sat down ...

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Am nächsten Morgen - nach Frühstück - Aufbruch nach Assisi - ca. 15 min. Fahrzeit. Da d** Parkplatz am Fuss des B**ges liegt auf dem die Stadt liegt - kurzes "Schlucken" - ab** in 10 min. warn wir beim Dom - dann ar wied** alles ok !
Assisi - eine wirklich wund**schöne alte Stadt , in die ich demnächst sich** mal auf läng** zurückkommen w**de.
Grab des heiligen ...

... front. The beach is broken into sections each section has a restaurant, sporting stuff (basketball hoops, Volleyball, Gyms, etc.) lounge chairs and umbrellas. Some even have an outdoor gym. The beach is actually sand, which is a novelty for Italy. We picked up some of the free bikes from the hotel and rode all around the city. I stopped and had a quick swim, Outside of the fact both of our asses were completely numb and bruised afterwards (not the best bikes ...

... as the bikes were not fully restored and were housed in a 2 level building on what seemed to be this mans home land. The smell of oil covered the place and we saw some very old bikes including Guzzis. Wayne loved it as the bikes were in original conditions , cleaned but not restored. While we there someone turned up and the man turned him away saying the museum was closed and when he saw us the man said we had a special entry because we were from ...

... going. Fortunately railroads were built in a more modern era. Sometimes I think that the glory that was Rome was nothing more than one giant construction project. Almost every town in the Balkans had at least one Roman bridge, the 'Rimski Most'. They're still standing, many of them. Almost no roads were built between the Roman era and the advent of the bicycle, except for the Inca Trail in another world unbeknownst ...

... at a less than slow pace as we eyed up the various shops, cafes, and market stalls, enjoying the considerably lower prices than in Venice - not a hard thing to do on reflection. We took our lunch of peanut butter sandwiches and gazed out at the views as the sun shone - what more a person could ask for I have no idea. Then began the descent from the charming ...

... was glistening with water - quite beautiful but a bit eerie when you're on your own. By that time I was quite drenched despite having an umbrella. So after a quick lunch and a coffee (yes an espresso - I was too embarassed to ask for a cappucino after lunch) to warm me up the clouds cleared off and I visited the towers again. It was like visiting a whole different ...

... by bus. walked around, got more UV rays penetrating my skin and now i'm back in rimini to walk around the town here. and would you know it, i stumbled upon a war memorial (lots of the town was destroyed during WWII). guess what? canada liberated rimini! geez, us canucks were everywhere back in the day. otherwise, rimini is a small town, easy to walk around, but truthfully not much to offer after the beach.

... in the barrier separating the two directions of the traffic. Then, instead of sticking to the main roads we got lured by road signs indicating a shorter route to San Marino. As most of the time, the signs proved inconsistent and misleading. Nevertheless we managed to arrive at San Marino, according to the road sign anyway. We expected some sort of a castle or historical object but as ...