{"id":4849,"date":"2016-06-09T06:27:05","date_gmt":"2016-06-08T20:27:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/?p=4849"},"modified":"2026-05-26T04:12:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T03:12:14","slug":"yet-another-country-visited-san-marino-tick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/2016\/06\/09\/yet-another-country-visited-san-marino-tick\/","title":{"rendered":"Yet Another Country Visited\u2026..San Marino\u2026.. Tick"},"content":{"rendered":"

Life is more enjoyable when you have someone to share your stories with<\/em><\/p>\n

\"A
A lovely painted doorway in Peschici<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

A couple of hours spent ambling around Peschici, a drive through Rodi Garganico, a drive around the Lago di Vareno and the Lago di Lesina completed our very enjoyable time in Puglia.\u00a0 Whether you want to call it Puglia or the anglicized Apulia, it is definitely a province in Italy worth visiting.<\/p>\n

\"The
The view up the coast from Peschici<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"A
A bit of castle wall in Peschici<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

The autostrada along the east coast from Lesina was sent from heaven.\u00a0 We really had forgotten what a non pot-holed road surface felt like.\u00a0 There we were, effortlessly gliding along smooth roads from the border of Puglia, across Molina, across Abruzzo and into Marche.\u00a0 Eileen wasn\u2019t rattling like she has been for weeks; she was silently cruising north across provinces.\u00a0 The scenery was lovely too; smooth undulating hills, mostly agricultural and almost always a view on our right to the Adriatic Sea.<\/p>\n

\"Both
Both of us on the road above Lago di Varano<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Camping Calypso at Cupra Marittima was not the best pick for a campsite.\u00a0 It was a bit of an old-fashioned family holiday camp full of bungalows, kiddie playgrounds and curiously split in two by a busy railway line.\u00a0 We tried to get to sleep to the sounds of loud (bad) entertainment coming from the central stage and the trains thundering through the campsite.\u00a0 The train track is not in a cutting, or above us.\u00a0 It runs at ground level behind some thin plastic fencing between us and the beach and must be the main line up the east coast of Italy.\u00a0 We managed to sleep though most of it, but I do know that there was a 1:23am\u00a0train, a 1:27am goods train and another one at 1:30am, plus plenty of others through the night.\u00a0 The biggest shock was when I went for my morning shower, a train shot past the wall behind me and in that early, half-awake moment, my heart jumped and for a moment I wondered what the hell had joined me in the shower!\u00a0 I swear, even the water drops jumped on the white tiled walls!!!<\/p>\n

\"No
No Rodney, Eileen will not get through there…!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Driving for a couple of hours or so, on Tuesday, got us to the Renaissance city of Urbino, way up in the valleys at the northern end of Marche.\u00a0 \u00a0It sprawls over two hills and the Piazza della Repubblica sits on the saddle between them. The roads up to the centre are incredibly steep, heart-pumping steep and they\u2019re cobblestoned.\u00a0 If it had been raining, I think we might have needed ropes!<\/p>\n

\"Urbino
Urbino from Parco della Resistenza<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"The
The cathedral in Piazza Duca Federico<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

The views over the surrounding hills and valleys are wonderful and the blonde stone buildings made us think of Tuscany.\u00a0 And, despite numerous university students wandering back and forth to various buildings, the whole place had a mellow, hushed, peaceful feel to it.\u00a0 The university claims to be one of the oldest in the world, founded in 1564.\u00a0 Its other claim to fame is that Raphael was born and lived in Urbino and his 15thC house is now a museum.\u00a0 It was a lovely place to while away a few hours and to enjoy a nice lunch in Piazza Rinascimento watching young people with bags full of books passing by.<\/p>\n

\"Raphael.....please
Raphael…..please don’t drip any paint on me<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Mid
Mid-afternoon in Urbino<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

From Urbino we drove across country, up and down hills, wiggling left and right and for half of the journey watching the prominent peak of San Marino coming in to view.\u00a0 When we finally got there, we didn\u2019t attempt to drive Eileen up Monte Titano to the historic city, but checked into Camping Centro Vacanze about 5kms away and checked out the bus timetable for Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\"First
First sighting of San Marino on the pointy peak<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

The small bus arrived on time at the campsite gates and we hopped on board for a run around the base of the city and then up to the Porte San Francisco.\u00a0 It was funny to think that we were in another country, I love these little independent places.\u00a0 This one claims to be \u2018the oldest\u2019 and then also claims to be \u2018one of\u2019 the oldest republics in the world; both of those sentences are written on the same information leaflet\u2026..!\u00a0 But it\u2019s pretty darn old, having set itself up as a republic in 1243.<\/p>\n

\"Rodney
Rodney ticking off another country visited<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"The
The Statue of Liberty outside the Public Palace in Piazza della Libert\u00e0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a fascinating place and we walked all over it, from the middle to one end and then right along to the other end which is a desolate tower on a craggy peak with panoramic views in all directions.\u00a0 We could see Rimini on the Adriatic coast and inland a patchwork of fields and hills and valleys.\u00a0 The lay-out is a zigzag of roads in a very narrow format, it has to be the skinniest city we\u2019ve ever been to and so it was fairly easy to cover the whole place in the five hours we spent there.<\/p>\n

\"Seconda
Seconda Torre or La Cesta o Fratta<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Terza
Terza Torre or Il Montale<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Life is more enjoyable when you have someone to share your stories with   A couple of hours spent ambling around Peschici, a drive through Rodi Garganico, a drive around the Lago di Vareno and the Lago di Lesina completed our very enjoyable time in Puglia.\u00a0 Whether you want to call it Puglia or the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4861,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4849"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8225,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4849\/revisions\/8225"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}