San Marino and Malta, Visiting Microstates

We were missing three microstates in Europe on our travel bucketlist and decided to fix the situation by visiting two of them: San Marino and Malta.

We were missing three microstates in Europe on our travel bucketlist and decided to fix the situation by visiting two of them: San Marino and Malta.

Exclusive San Marino

San Marino is the smallest and oldest republic in the world. It has only some 30 000 inhabitants living in and around one little mountain. The historical centre of San Marino is located at the top of the mountain and it's more like a museum and tourist attraction. Rare stamps, euro coins, fragrances, chocolate, and weaponry are sold to visitors, most of whom seemed to come from Russia and Asia.

Getting to San Marino by public trasport is easy. There is a shuttle bus from Rimini railway station and it costs 10 euro a roundtrip. The trip takes only 40 minutes so there's no need to stay in San Marino overnight, unless you want to burn excessive amount of cash for sleeping and eating. Rimini is a much more affordable option and the weather is warmer there. We enjoyed our stay in Viserba, a beach resort neighbourhood of Rimini.

Rainy Malta

Malta is a beautiful island but very touristy. Even in November there were lots of British pensioners and Russian holiday-makers. The popular tourist area, Saint Paul's Bay, reminded us of some of the most touristy neighbourhoods in Thailand. There were a lot of hotels, restaurants, and bars that were all crowded by farangs.

We were a bit unlucky with the weather in Malta as it was raining heavily for all the time we spent there. The British tourists and expats were bravely wearing shorts and t-shirts while locals wore winter coats. The worst was waiting for a bus while it was raining cats and dogs. Malta has an affordable (1,5 euro per trip) and seemingly modern public transport but the schedules are like in Africa. If you need to go to the airport, it's better have at least 4 hours for the trip.