Visiting San Marino with kids.
San Marino is a European Microstate that Italy surrounds. It is the oldest surviving sovereign state and the 5th smallest country in the world.
This makes it a country where you don’t need a lot of time to explore, but it’s well worth it and accessible from parts of Italy. We drove from Lake Garda through Bologna and Imola, where we stopped off and visited the Ferrari Museum in Maranello, then stopped off for some dinner.
It was an easy drive and well worth a trip to the Ferrari Museum, especially with kids, as the cars on offer were fantastic. Even more impressive were its F1 cars and trophies on show, an absolute must-do for any motorsports fan. The museum covers the emergence of Ferrari with a mock-up of Enzo Ferraris’s office, all the way to the current car models and F1 success. We booked out tickets through https://getyourguide.tp.st/QzigNPGz
Back in San Marino, most attractions are conveniently situated within the tiny city centre. This city centre is beautiful because it is a UNESCO heritage world heritage site along with Mount Titato, which seems to encompass the city centre. Due to it being so high up, literally situated on a mountain, the views are spectacular from all around and even more so when the sun is setting.
The city really can be seen within a day, but I would highly recommend spending a night here to view the city at night and enjoy a meal and a few drinks. Like Italy, it has many ice cream shops and restaurants, which is very appealing when visiting San Marino with kids. It’s a very safe city, so we felt fine wandering around with Teddy in the evening.
The most impressive sight in San Marino, I think, is the three medieval fortresses along the ridge of Mount Titano. Guaita, Cesta and Montale. The first two towers are open to the public. We decided against this as we had a pram with us, which made parts of the city a bit difficult to access, but we did, however, use some of the pathways connecting the towers. The most impressive is the Witches path that connects the 1st and 2nd towers. For this part, we folded the pram and carried it.
Whilst these pathways are so much fun when visiting San Marino with kids, bringing some reins is absolutely necessary. Kids love walking and some of these paths are met with sheer drops off the side so it can be quite scary with little ones. If you have a tight hold of them, though, it’s really fun.
The rest of the city is full of little shops, restaurants, and cafes, similar to the ones we encountered in Lake Como and it is very walkable.
From one of the viewpoints on mount Titano, there is a funicular up to the top of the mountain, this was cool to look at, and maybe your child would really enjoy the experience, but seeing as we had already walked up it wasn’t worth a trip for the sake of it.
The little train that runs through the city centre was worth the few euros. You can take a one-way or return trip for a few euros each. We just did it one way as it was purely for Teddy to have a ride as he is obsessed with anything like that, and it absolutely made his day. Timetables are attached to each of the stops to make it easier to plan for you.
One last little cool little thing when visiting San Marino with kids is to get your passport stamped at the office, a little fun thing for them to do with their own passport.
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