September 1, 2017
I found a cheap flight to Anconna, Italy through Brussels, so we decided to go to the Anconna on the Adriatic coast. Upon arrival, we rented a car and drove up the coast through thunderstorms to a seaside town called Riccione, where we had some lunch at a beach cafe as the sun appeared.
A short drive then took us to the independent, enclave country (1) of San Marino. San Marino was the only state (other than Vatican City) to remain independent during Italian unification in the mid 1800s.
According to the man at the tourist information counter,
The historic center of San Marino city is high on a bluff about 20 miles from the Italian coastal city of Rimini (2). While wandering about, we noticed a large number of people with kelly-green shirts from Northern Ireland. They told us (with incredudilty as if we could not possibly know such an important fact) that San Marino was hosting Northern Ireland in a soccer world cup qualifying match that evening. The town got very quiet as evening fell. I don't know if this was typical for a Friday evening, or if everyone in the country was at home watching the soccer match.
After returning to the hotel, we watched the frequent cloud-to-cloud over the Adriatic.
Whimsical advertisement at Charleroi Airport. Belgium is presumably not known for its sunny weather.
View of the Italian coast and the Adriatic from our hotel in San Marino
Tower 1, San Marino. Note the green shirts of the Northern Ireland Soccer fans in the foreground
Towers 2 & 3 from Tower 1
View of Tower 1 from Tower 2
Sunset view from San Marino
Twilight at San Marino
