San Leo and San Marino

We thought "Sure, let's go to San Marino, it's an easy trip," and as we got to the turn off for San Marino, we decided to go a bit futher, and check out the Artists Colony of San Leo.  Brilliant choice!  San Leo is just outside of Rimini, just east of the Republic of San Marino, and it is a world all to itself.  You drive up the crazy steep and narrow road, and the moment you cross under the arch, you are greeted with this iconic Italian scene.

Main Street in San Leo
(c) 2012 The Wandering Mama

I am afraid that my words will not do this amazing hilltop town any justice.  This is the kind of town that fills tourists head with dreams of moving to Italy and breaking away from it all.

San Leo shops
(c) 2012 The Wandering Mama

San Leo is what comes to mind when you think of a rural Italian town.  The streets are narrow and cobbled.  The shops are tiny (and God help you if you get there after 2, when everything closes for the afternoon), the people are friendly, and the views are breathtaking.

San Leo Roses
(c) 2012 The Wandering Mama

Even in the middle of winter, there is still color, and there is still beauty in this remote little town.  The roses were blooming, and there were even a few Geraniums still blooming in their  draping window boxes.  Even the air itself was different out there.  As we drove through the countryside, it was 40 degrees f, and I still had the windows down, just breathing in the wonderful smelling, clean air.

Castle above San Leo
(c) 2012 The Wandering Mama

San Leo Natale Decorations
(c) 2012 The Wandering Mama

Immediately above the village, there is a fortress. It is beautiful, and in the summer it sits with giant flags flying.  Today it looked a bit cold and lonely.    The rest of the town is decked out for the holidays, in small, but beautiful ways.

The Eastern view from the top of San Marino
(c) 2012 The Wandering Mama

After leaving the beautiful, and dream inspiring San Leo, we went up to the Republic of San Marino.  San Marino is it's own hill, about 20 minutes directly east of Rimini, and while they accept the Euro as currency, they are a seperate and sovereign nation, and not a member of the EU.  Once upon the time, The Republic of San Marino had banking laws that were not unlike Switzerland - and they became a haven for those who were seeking to store their money privately, or to dodge and evade taxes.  With the current Italian fiscal situation, they have cracked down on San Marino, and specifically, they have cracked down on Italians keeping their money there - this is leaving a somewhat uncertain future for this beautiful country within a country.

The NW view from the Republic of San Marino
(c) 2012 The Wandering Mama

When you drive into san Marino all you see are big houses, and a steep, steep mountain.  As you drive up farther, you see more houses, and then you realize that you are driving into a castle.  Even on the best days parking can be a bear, so watch out for that.

As you walk up the street, there are tons and tons of kitschy touristy shops, hocking everything from jewelry to pizza, leather bags, and everything in between.  Remember, every price here, aside from the food, is negotiable.  

The castle on top of San Marino, Republic of San Marino
(c) 2012 The Wandering Mama

If you keep walking up the hill, you will eventually arrive at the castle.    Did I mention it is at the TOP of the hill?  By the time I got up there, my fear of heights that quite honestly had only bothered me perhaps two other times in my life had come into play  -  combine that, with the fact that the castle charges 3 euro to enter, I figured it was about the perfect time to turn around, and go back to the car!  

Where San Leo is beautiful, and authentic, and quite happy to be off by itself, San Marino is clamoring for tourist money - they even have created their own Vampire Museum - not sure why, but they did.  We left San Leo with the desire to go back again, and to bring friends and family - we left San Marino saying "well, been there, done that".  The views are amazing, and I am happy that we went, but beyond that, ehhhh.  I have no desire to really go back, and wouldn't take the time out of my day to take friends or family, but that's just me.

The castle above San Marino, Republic of San Marino
(c) 2012 The Wandering Mama

Thank you for reading about our adventures - as always, please, leave a comment, share your experiences, ask a question, whatever!

Italia, Where to Begin?

Yesterday was day 2 of our last minute "Invade Italy, 2012" trip.  We drove down in 8 hours, and are staying in our amazing hotel on the beach here in Rimini!  Rimini is a funny town - it tried to be the Italian version of Ibiza, but with the clubs came lots of drugs and darker elements, so now, 20 years later the town is struggling to clean itself up.  They have done an amazing job - this is the town we come to unwind in.  The beach is gorgeous, and quite literally goes on for miles - the Adriatic Sea is breathtaking, and the food - well - the food is beyond anything most people can imagine.  I am getting SO ahead of myself though.  I am going to try and take this trip day by day - and maybe even more than that - as some towns deserve multiple entries on their own.  For the life of me, I have never figured out how some guidebooks ignore this area completely, and others give it a mere page or two. . . I guess if you stick to just the tourist spots you could do that.  We avoid those places :)

In the afternoon, we drove just a bit up the coast, and went to Ravenna.  Ravenna is known by and large for two main things : BEAUTIFUL mosaics, and the tomb of Dante Allegheri  I don't want to overload this blog with photos - so, choosing just my very favorites is my mission - one picture for each place - I will probably expand upon each place in a later post though, I was so amazed here!

Basilica di Santa Maria en Porto

We started out in Ravenna, walking the Via Roma.  There are street signs here, but they aren't always easily understood, so we figured the best way to find anything was to go on foot, and stay close.  Thankfully, most of the major sights are well within easy walking distance (even with a 3 year old in tow).  We parked by the Museum of Art, and off we went!  We walked past the Basilica di Santa Maria en Porto - there were worshippers there, and I really do not want to bother someone in prayer.  Pretty sure it's frowned upon.

We continued on our walk, down to the Basilica di Sant'Apollinare Nuovo.  You know that saying good things in small packages?  Well, the package was not small, but it was most definitely unassuming.  It looked like a plain brick church from the front, not much special.  Then, after you pay your 9.50 to enter (you buy a ticket that gives you access to 5 UNESCO World Heritage Sights, and is valid for 7 days)  This is what we found INSIDE. . . The Basilica is STUNNING!  The mosaics inside defy words - such artistry, so much love and time spent.  My photos do not give any of it the justice it deserves!

 Basilica di Sant'Apollinare Nuovo

Next, we went to the Tomb of Dante Allegheri.  After being pushed out of Firenze, Dante spent his days in hiding in Ravenna.  Even after his death, the monks still hid his remains for a few hundred years before entombing him next to their monastery.  At the end of this little alley, is the Tomb.


Inside of the tomb, if you look directly above your head, you will see a lit oil lamp.  To this day, Firenze is still paying a pennance of sorts for their persecution of the author of "Inferno".  The oil for the lamp in the tomb is provided by the city of Firenze every year.





When the Germans occupied Ravenna during WWII, Dante's remains were again put into hiding, as the monks chose to bury his body under a pile of soil and plants in the courtyard adjacent to the tomb, so that his remains could not be desecrated, or taken by the German soldiers.


Ravenna, as I said before is known for it's Mosaics.  Not all Mosaics are on Cathedral ceilings.  There are many artisans that do all kinds of amazing work there, from wall hangings, to dishes, to lord knows what else.  As we were walking towards Dante's tomb, I found my favorite Mosaic piece.  Apparently it is other peoples favorite as well, because they had to lock it down with the blue bicycle lock that you see attached to it!

From there we wandered around beautiful, if poorly marked streets, and found our way to what appeared to be a HUGE amazing church - surely, it was so big that it had to be part of what we needed to see!  It wasn't!  IT was huge, it was beautiful, but it was just the duomo (HA!  Never thought I would say something was JUST a duomo) - the small, octagonal building next to it was what we were really trying to find.  It was the Battistero Neoniano.

The Duomo - this is still very much an active church!

Did I mention that the sun was out?  The entire day was NOT warm, but we did have the sun!  I miss the sun.  In Germany, we are so far north that even if you were outside all day long, the sun is simply not strong enough for your body to begin to synthesize vitamin D at all!  I LOVE VITAMIN D.  This California Girl is seriously solar powered.


No wonder I love it down here in Italy.  The climate here in Northern Italy is SO similar to what it is like where i grew up in Northern California - I always feel like a part of me is coming home when we travel down here!

The Duomo again, as seen from the Battistero Neoniano

Originally built on a roman bath site, the battistero is actually over 4 stories, however 3 of those stories are now underground, and inaccessible to the average bear .  Ah well, the one floor of it that we did get to see what amazing.  The mosaics are otherworldly!  And they even have a bronze cross on display from around 688 or so AD!

The ceiling of the Battistero Neoniano.  The scene is depicting Christ being baptised by John the Baptist - I think my favorite part of it, though is if you look off to the side of the centerpiece, you will see a man holding a cloth for Christ to wear - that man is actually the spirit of the river.  Roman mythology meet Christianity!

One of the alcoves inside the Battistero Neonian

We thought we were leaving at this point.  We really did.  And then we saw it.  We saw the Basilica di Sant'Apollinare en Classe.

my dad was kind enough to know that I REALLY wanted to see this church, so he offered for my mom and him to take the kids to the park, while I went inside, and shot pictures of the Basilica all by myself!  It was stunning!  This will have it's own blog post, because there is just too much to share on this page by itself.

Basilica di Sant'Apollinare en Classe

Basilica di Sant'Apollinare en Classe.

Basilica di Sant'Apollinare en Classe.

Basilica di Sant'Apollinare en Classe.

Weihnachts Markt Coburg

Today was my fathers birthday, so we decided to adventure to a new town for the day.  We picked the city of Coburg, home of Prince Albert.  It is a BEAUTIFUL city - I would love to go back in the spring and explore some more - I bet it is simply amazing come summer!  As far as the Weihnachts Markt, however, it's not worth writing home about.... or maybe I am just that spoiled, living near so many AMAZING markets.  I thought the people were kind of pushy (especially the parents near the carousel), the Glühwein was good, the mugs cute - but we found the food to be lacking - there only a couple of stands with food, and none of the bratwürst mit semmel that we have come to expect.  My rating - pretty, but go for the city, not the market!

I mean, this place is absolutely beautiful, and it had all of the essentials needed for a market, it just was not particularly my taste.  The crowd here was a bit more aggressive than I am used to - it was easy to lose track of the kids, and no one really seemed to be paying attention to anything but themselves.  I thought the aisles for walking were pretty narrow, which meant that there were many bottle necks, as people would stand around and socialize with their friends, not even realizing that they were blocking the flow of traffic.

This time, we went earlier in the evening - so there were less drunk people, but there were in general just MORE people.  MORE people isn't always good, especially for me - it got to the point that I started getting uncomfortable, and a little bit anxious.  Thankfully my mom saw that happening, and "suggested" we go out the nearest exit, and start shooting the outside of the market.  YES.  THANK YOU.  SO MUCH BETTER.  I will say, though, that my drunken friends from the other night definitely made for a more entertaining night, and for a much lighter mood!

And well, it's me, so like I have said before I get distracted.  It may not be "SQUIRREL" - but usually with me it is along the lines of, "Oooooooohhhhhh, shineyyyyyyyyyy" and I stare at the pretties for quite a bit of time.  Here are a few of the pretty shineys that I found tonight!

 

As always- PLEASE, leave a comment, share a thought, or just follow along with us on our journey!