San Marino & The Abruzzo Mountains

After leaving Venice, we drove south to the town of Rimini, a beachside location that would normally be bustling but being the end of the summer season, we found accomodation on the waterfront that was so reasonably priced we stayed for two nights. An excellent base to discover San Marino, just forty minutes up  the road.
Some of you will probably think you know what motivated me to want to visit San Marino. To visit the site of the San Marino Grand Prix maybe? Not the case. I learnt when we were here in 2014 that the San Marino Grand Prix was actually held in Imola! Some 100 km away. (We did go to the Imola circuit back then to pay homage to the late Ayrton Senna who was tragically killed there in 1994.)
This visit was all about learning more about the republic that is completely surrounded by north-central Italy. These small countries such as Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Vatican City, Monaco, Andorra etc. appeal to us so we like to visit them whenever the opportunity arises.
San Marino is a mountainous microstate and is among the world’s oldest republics dating back to the 11th century, so we were very curious to check it out.
The drive to the top was not too dissimilar to our drive up to Castle Mola in Sicily, a few months earlier- steep and windy. Fortunately we had a few more horsepower than our previous little Aygo had, which made for an effortless climb.
It  was immediately noticeable how grand the place was. The city retains much of its historic architecture and is known for its medieval walled old town and narrow cobblestone streets, all immaculately maintained and spotlessly clean. We walked for hours, found a restaurant with a view to the distant coastline, enjoyed the local cuisine, then walked some more. Linda was particularly interested in the ‘Tax Free’ aspect of the republic and set upon visiting every jewellery store in the State! Her hard work paid off in the form of matching earrings, necklace and ring which she assured me, was an absolute bargain!

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We were lucky enough to witness the impeccably uniformed guards escort a royal motorcade through the central piazza. We assumed the King had some special guests that afternoon and wasn’t just trying to impress us!

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Having had our fill of culture, one of the highlights of my afternoon was filling Dustie up with tax free Diesel just before we crossed the border back into Italy, at a considerably lesser price per litre than we had been paying. (I’m easily entertained.)
We needed one more stopover so as not to arrive at our next house sit too early. A quick look at the map and the town of ‘Fermo’ caught our attention. It has been described as an aristocratic and secretive city! That was enough for us to want to discover its secrets.
It no longer surprises me when Linda finds us a room in an old guest house that has been in the same family for numerous generations. The property had been restored to its former glory complete with wood burning cooker and large timber beams I had to sometimes duck to walk under.
We wasted no time in going for a walk through the ancient Roman colony with a renaissance style piazza. Once again, we were staggered by the amount of hidden gems in this country. We found a restaurant recommended by our host and perched ourselves at a table on the terrace that overlooked the piazza. The waitress asked us (we presume) if we were there for dinner. We responded with a ‘Si’ and what followed was not a menu but a procession of delicious dishes! We had no say in it but we weren’t bothered because we were not keen on guessing our way through a menu. The food was so delicious and plentiful, we began thinking it was going to be an expensive meal. It was as it turned out but when you enjoy a meal and an experience as we did that night, you don’t seem to mind so much.

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The final leg of our journey to Arsita had us wondering what we had gotten ourselves into! Narrow winding tracks with cracks in the tarmac and rocks on the road from landslides. Our sat nav got confused and directed us into a dairy farm! It was when we drove past the milking sheds and were directed down a muddy track I suggested we switch the ‘Michelin Maps’ app off and turn the cars GPS on. Thankfully Dustie’s onboard Sat Nav got us to Arsita where we met Jennifer, a retired Northern Irish teacher who had been living in Italy for several years. We were to follow her to the track at the top of her property where she would park her car and then get into ours. The track leading to her house had fallen into such a state of disrepair it became impassable for her  little car and she was forced to leave it on the main road and walk the remaining four hundred meters. No problem for Dustie, the high clearance allowed us to navigate the ruts, potholes and cracks with relative ease.
As we entered the driveway we were greeted by Jennifer’s ‘gang’, five dogs and four cats. The dogs were from rescue shelters and were a mix of ‘bitsa’ breeds. All had their own personality, some needed plenty of attention and some were happy to do their own thing outdoors. Not a problem because Jennifer’s house was set on a large parcel of land with stunning views of the valley and mountains beyond. One dog in particular received immediate respect from me. He was a huge Abruzzo sheepdog named ‘Orso’ appropriately meaning ‘bear’ in Italian. I nicknamed him ‘Awesome’, because he was!

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Linda befriended the two female dogs that were, what we thought, the only house dogs. Before we would go to bed each night, we would usher the non-house dogs outside to sleep under the house. Most nights this was done with relative ease except one cold night ‘Awesome’ wouldn’t budge so I had to give him a bit of ‘hip and shoulder’. The normally ‘gentle giant’ let out a bit of a growl and it wasn’t until Linda sternly ordered him out with her ‘teachers voice’ that he reluctantly walked outside, to my relief. “He could have easily taken us both out if he wanted to” I said to Linda.
Funny thing was, when Jennifer returned from her beachside holiday with her sister, I told her about the one night we had a bit of trouble getting Orso out. “Oh, he likes to stay in the house when its really cold outside” she said!! No wonder he was upset with us! Testament to his good nature I guess.

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We were only there for just over a week but we got to see and enjoy a great deal of the area. An extremely active fault line runs through the Abruzzo mountains and they have experienced several major earthquakes over the years. The most recent, in 2017, evident by the damage to the roads and some buildings we came across on a drive to Pescara one day. Pescara is an inviting coastal city and we enjoyed a walk along waterfront and a tasty seafood lunch on a sunny Sunday.

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Other places such as Penne, Atri and Bisenti were all nearby towns that we spent time discovering.
Another amazing experience that we would have not likely lived had it not been for the house sitting lifestyle we are enjoying.

See you in Rome.