Ireland & Italy 2019

September 30, 2019

Time to leave our 16th century hilltop farmhouse in Umbria, to spend a night in Rimini, on the Adriatic Sea. Via a few twisty mountain roads of course through San Leo, San Marino, and Coriano.

San Leo is not just another small village in Emilia-Romagna. San Leo has an imposing 15th century fortress seemingly built right into the rock at the top of a 2,000-foot mountain. It's an impressive sight from any angle...from the car approaching San Leo on highway SP22...

closer...

from the foot of the mountain....

the bridge crossing over to the mountain...

and the one-way cliff-side road to the top...

(photo courtesy Google Streetview)

through the arch...

a look back down at the bridge we just crossed...

after parking the car, it's a climb up to the fortress...

and the immense scale of the fortress becomes obvious....

The fortress was completed in the 15th century has a complicated history and ultimately was given to the church in 1631 and then converted into a prison in 1860. It remained a prison until 1906, became home to a military unit, and then made into a national monument in the 1950s. Now, after restoration and upgrading, it is a museum.

360-degree views...with the Adriatic Sea in the far distance in some photos...

The fortress-prison contained "Pozzetti's Cell" where Count Cogliostro was imprisoned for being a heretic and a Freemason. The cell is tiny, about 10 feet square, with only one window providing him with a view of the local cathedral and nothing else, and at the time, no door. Cogliostro had to climb through a trapdoor in the ceiling to get into his cell, which was also used to serve his food and keep him under observation 24 hours a day.

the trapdoor...

down to other prison cells...

the rings in the walls show where the prisoners were chained, several to a room....

given a choice, I'd take being chained to the ring....

the infamous rack...

We don't spend much time in the dungeon...back up we go over these ancient wornout steps...

San Leo was a real highlight of our trip...not a regular tourist destination by any means, so few other tourists but so imposing how it seems to have been built right into the mountain rock...

and inside it's obvious that it was..a true hidden gem...

We move onto San Marino...not a hilltop town but a hilltop country! Possibly the world's oldest republic..

onto the funicular we go...

and at the top, we discover this...in contrast to San Leo, San Marino is full of tacky tourist shops like this one...

there are some places of interest...the Palazzo Pubblico, San Marino's official Government Building, and San Marino was nice enough to announce our arrival...

as we walk around, it's time for lunch...pizza by the slice...when in Italy...

it's a tiny place, operated by the owner...

but the pizza is terrific, the best pizza we had in Italy...we would read later that Trip Advisor rates Strapizzati as the best place for pizza and the 2nd best out of 72 restaurants in San Marino...the owner said it was his wife's crazy idea to put zucchini on pizza but it was really really good!

Time to say good-bye to San Marino...

and head back down into Italy...the Adriatic is in the distance here as the camera pans out...

From San Marino, we go to Rimini, a beach town on the Adriatic Sea, and the temperature reaches a summery 31C....

but first we make a very worthwhile detour....to Coriano Ridge War Cemetery, where close to 2,000 young Allied soldiers are buried, including 427 Canadians, most of whom died here in September 1944, 75 years ago.

It's quiet and serene. How different it must have been 75 years ago for these brave soldiers. We walk around slowly, quietly, and read the headstones....all the Canadian ones have a maple leaf...