Posted by Martin Orr on
Friday, 04 August 2006 at 18:36
Today I went on a day trip to San Marino, the third smallest country in Europe and, according to its leaflet, oldest extant republic in the world. The main city is perched on top of a very steep 750m hill, but it actually rules a decent amount of territory around that - 61 sq. km. The town is packed with souvenir shops, restaurants and assorted little museums (curiosities, waxworks, ancient and modern weapons, instruments of torture) designed to extract tourists' money.
Rimini, from where you get the bus to San Marino, is the biggest seaside resort in Italy. That's about all I have to say about it - I didn't go to the beach but I gather it's packed.
Now in: Ravenna
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Martin
Tags
holiday, italy, sanmarino
Posted by Martin Orr on
Thursday, 03 August 2006 at 14:50
The most obvious thing about Venice is of course that it is built on a collection of islands. Every block or two you come to a bridge over a canal. All transport is on foot or by boat: the streets are just too narrow for wheeled vehicles (I saw one child on a bicycle). They are also impossible to navigate, twisting in unexpected directions. And to make it harder to find anywhere, the buildings are numbered from a single sequence in each district (my hostel was number 5170 Castello).
Most of it is also pretty run-down. Once you lift your eyes above the shops on the ground floor, most buildings are lacking in paint and the bricks are crumbling. Apparently the non-tourist population of the island city is falling rapidly. The exception is the churches and museums maintained for tourists. The Doge's Palace is grand and well-presented but I didn't like St Mark's Basilica: it was more like a tourist attraction that a church. I suppose I'm being a bit hypocritical going there as a tourist myself and complaining, and with the number of tourists who want to see it perhaps there's not much else can be done.
Now in: Ravenna
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Martin
Tags
churches, holiday, italy