"San Marino" a San Marino Travel Page by mccalpin

San Marino is a small but independent country in the eastern part of Italy.

According to the CIA Factbook, San Marino is about 61 square kilometers and has a population just under 29,000 people.

Over 50% of San Marino's economy is derived from tourism. Yep, there's not much going on otherwise.

When I was there in 1977 or so, the big business was selling ornate and colorful visa stamps for your passport - no, visas are not required to enter San Marino (unless you needed one to enter Italy), but since most people never get to San Marino, the visa stamps are a little rare...

San Marino is really a sandstone ridge in the eastern part of central Italy. That is, much of the country sits above neighboring Italy, as if much of the country is a medieval castle.

The architecture of San Marino plays on this.

It also makes for some great weather - the time I visited, a thunderstorm rolling over the Italian countryside ran into San Marino at eye level - it was cool (and loud) being inside a thunderstorm(!)