For 27 years San Marino had its own Grand Prix. It is no more. But tourists are still trying to break the lap record.
If you really put your foot down and have the wind behind and there are not too many shoppers about, you can quite easily complete one lap of the whole of the Republic of San Marino in a little over 30 minutes.
San Marino is the last surviving medieval city state in Italy. It is the oldest and smallest independent state in the world. Situated between the Marche and Romagna regions half an hour from Bologna, it is only 62km2. The historic centre is perched on top of Mount Titano, up which the giants of mythology are meant to have climbed into heaven to depose Jupiter.
Although in the heart of mid-Italy, overlooking the Adriatic as well as the Apennines and only 22km from the seaside resort of Rimini, San Marino is still proudly self-governed. It rises above Italy and typical Italian things like prices and taxes. It is much cheaper. Income tax only began in 1992. San Marino is not a member of the European Community. It still has its own lira although, of course, it is more than happy to take the tourist euro.
Every April San Marino used to remind the world where it is by staging its own F1 Grand Prix. It shelled out millions of euros for this noisy one-day global PR stunt which often backfired since no one went to San Marino to watch the race because it was held in Imola in Italy half an hour away. It would have been impossible to stage a Formula One event around the narrow, cobbled streets of San Marino. Walking the twisting and very steep sight-seeing course is hard enough.
"La Repubblica" was founded by a Dalmatian. Marinus, a Croatian stonecutter working on the harbour of Rimini, found refuge there as a Christian in 301 AD. His death mask is kept in a silver and gold reliquary in San Marino's neo-classical Basilica del Santo or Pieve church and is paraded every Freedom Day, February 5, which commemorates the liberation from the papal militia led by Cardinal Alberoni in 1740. The great Italian hero Giuseppe Garibaldi proclaimed the dissolution of the Roman legion from the steps of San Marino's St Quirino's church in 1849.
Shaped like an irregular quadrilateral, San Marino has a population of 22 000, but only a hundred people live in the old town. Said my guide, Micaela Pignalla, with great pride: "We have eight monuments, nine churches, three different city walls, two newspapers, seven political parties, one university, one football team, one stamp museum, one campsite, eight banks, one reptilarium, one McDonalds, one Chinese restaurant, 11 car parks, four public lavatories, one English pub, one Irish pub, one swimming-pool, 3-million visitors a year, 170 hectares of vineyards, our own wine, our own stamps and nine districts. You might call them suburbs or townships. We call them castles."
The official San Marino-Italian border is the bridge of Fosso Marignao down in Dogana. Although there are no customs, theoretically all visitors are obliged to lay down all arms before entering La Repubblica. The oldest district is Serravelle, once called Olanao, the town of elm. Fiorentino, Montegiardino, Domagnano, and Chiesanuova are all non-descript urban sprawls. Faetano is set on a hill of chalk dust which was used to make plaster. Acquaviva is the heart of the republic's modern cheese-making operations. Borgo Maggiore is famous for its Garibaldi and stamp museums, its Thursday market in the Piazza Grande and the 100-second cable car journey up to the picturesque old town.
San Marino is, perhaps, most famous for its three fortresses. The tenth century Guaita, reached by the Witches' Pass, was the prison until the 1960s. Montaleste was a look-out while the Cesta Tower, is now a museum of ancient arms containing the impressive array of cannons, rapiers, spears, pistols, blunderbusses and miscellaneous prodding and repelling instruments you would expect from a fiercely peace-loving nation.
We stood beside the Statue of Liberty below the crenellated bell tower of the neo-Gothic public palace in the Piazza della Liberta, looking out over a snowfield of clouds. The Changing of the Guard in San Marino only happens in the summer. Presumably because it is too cold to do it in the winter. At 750m above sea level the republic is exposed to the terrifying garbino wind. Shivering is a national pastime.
Inside the nineteenth century Palazzo del Governo is a bust of Abraham Lincoln who is an honourary citizen. In 1861, he wrote and told tiny San Marino: "Although your dominion is small your state is one of the most honoured in all history". Also on show are a lot of crossbows. The republic still holds a prestigious crossbow championship (the Palio dei Balestreiri e Achibugieri) in honour of the gallant crossbow corps founded in 1339 to defend the famous crag.
For six euros you can enjoy "an authentic anthology of horror and human cruelty" and pay-to-view a hundred ways of inflicting pain from the garotte, to the heretic's fork" and the "Inquisitorial chair".
Sight-seeing around in San Marino is quick, interesting and easy. You won't get a stitch.