Wednesday, September 10, 2025 – Day 2

The breakfast at B&B Villa Letizia is truly fabulous, a full program just for us two guests and fantastic coffee to top it off. And dog Olli is also lounging around with us. It's really nice here, but we have to move on.

8:45 AM departure and soon starting rain with everything gray and dreary. This wasn’t planned for our trip to the Republic of San Marino. Nevertheless, parking at P11 Borgo Maggiore near the base station of the cable car is already overcrowded. Well, we take the full risk and park in the 1-hour short-term zone.

After the short cable car ride in the rain, we head to Piazza della Libertà with the Palazzo Pubblico: the seat of the town hall, the parliament, and the government – and also depicted on the reverse of the 2-euro coin.

Then to the beautiful basilica and up to the first tower “Guaita” on the ridge of Monte Titano, with just a brief view, unfortunately, as the rain intensifies, towards the second tower “Cesta”. But we still obtain a tourist visa, and the extremely nice lady at the tourist information speaks absolutely flawless German.

But we are still cold and wet, so we head to the gondola down; the car is still there. Thus, we take a short and dry connecting stage to Tavullia. A small sleepy village, but the home of Valentino Rossi. The VR46 Store and the associated L’Osteria are showered with euros, and we are treated to excellent food in return. Important: finally a gas pedal at the sink!

Fully stuffed, we drive to the Rossi Motor Ranch in the outback, where a fenced-off visitor area even with a portable toilet is installed at the barrier visible 500 m down the track.

We pass through the Apennines in part of apocalyptic rain, past countless radar surveillance points; the Italians really take thoroughness to heart. We make a quick stop at a gas station before Perugia with the absolute grungiest restroom ever, but what really fits and tastes good:

“Un caffè, per favore! Grazie!”

Although the weather improves, we skip coffee and ice cream at Lake Trasimeno and head south of Siena toward Grosseto, but then sharply turn right and drive along a (wet) dirt road through idyllic avenues to our agriturismo villa.

Conclusion: Due to today’s rain, we spent much less time in San Marino but were able to spend more time in Tavullia. And because of the rain, we also made fewer stops along the way, so we arrived much earlier at the villa in Agriturismo Il Poggiarello.

But no problem for WhatsApp-Elena, who introduced herself the day before, and now she shows us everything. Lisa settles in the south wing with her own bathroom, while the flushing mechanism in my toilet is malfunctioning in the north wing. First tour around the premises, but everything is still damp from the rain. The pool is huge and it is absolutely quiet here, only a few crickets chirp sporadically.

In the next village San Rocco a Pilli, we find a COOP and look forward to our dinner with prosciutto con melone, parmeggiano, pomodorino, which we enjoy outdoors. Writing daily reports, sorting bills, making calls, and reading until 11:00 PM.

To go to the hilly San Marino, I made it a bit easier for myself. Most of my equipment stayed at the campsite in Rimini, and I only rode to the mini-state with light luggage in the best weather.

On the way there, I passed through Santarcangelo di Romagna. I didn't actually have the chic little town on my radar and was surprised how many tourists it attracted (but rightly so). Then it slowly went uphill and got steeper and steeper until I reached the Citadel in the heart of San Marino after 30 kilometers. There was a colorful hustle and bustle in the probably oldest existing republic in the world. There were a few hotels in the castle, but most tourists probably only come as day guests. Within 2-3 hours, you can see almost everything. Of course, the euro coins are also in demand, which are only minted in limited numbers and can be purchased at some stands. Only the complete sets with the 10 cent coin are expensive, as it was not put into circulation as a means of payment and therefore is only traded in complete sets of coins. It seems that firearms, etc. can be acquired quite easily in San Marino.

The view from the castle, which is located at an altitude of 756 meters, was breathtaking thanks to the clear view. I pushed and carried my bike along the castle wall, as I didn't want to leave it in a public place. Above the roofs of the city, I had a nice lunch break and watched some athletes turn the castle wall into a climbing wall.

In the heat of the afternoon, I returned to Rimini, sometimes faster than I would have liked, thanks to the steep downhill sections.

Today we spent the day in San Marino 🇸🇲

We walked along the three castles. Again with great views and moments of reflection.

Had lunch in a great restaurant and enjoyed delicious Prosecco and met two nice people ... greetings to Rosvita and Janis

Found a parking space in Riccione right by the sea 🌊

Ended the evening by the sea with delicious wine 😍

To which the right testicle replied, 'SNORE....'

The left one, louder: 'Wake up, we're here!'

And the right one: 'Huh...What? We're here? Yippee!'

Then the left one said, 'Just kidding! Still 10 kilometers straight ahead! Haha! You fool!'

That's how I felt today. I chose a terrible route to Ravenna and San Marino! My own fault!

Finally arrived in Ravenna, I visited the mausoleum of Theodoric. Yeah, that guy was important in his time! Tales (Dietrich of Bern) and myths revolve around him, and even as a little, slender rascal with leather patches on my pants, I soaked up his stories. Anyway, it's proven that he beat up Odoacer and took his kingdom from him. At that time, Odoacer had conquered the Western Roman Empire and spoiled the Romans' gelatinous nightingale tongues. By Jupiter! Damn barbarians!

Furthermore, I wanted to visit Dante's mausoleum, but there was a crowd of people in front of the door and I didn't want to waste my time in the purgatory of waiting and the infernal torment of standing around! Too bad, my dear poet prince, maybe we'll meet in heaven....

So, up on my Berta and off to San Marino!

A beautiful, hilly old town with a castle and all the trimmings was waiting to be visited! The view from a distance already made me eager for more! But then it started to rain, and now I'm sitting in my room, waiting for better weather, taking a photo of a sausage (that would be a culinarily valuable dick pic, no lady would have a problem with it!) and once again proving that I am a little piggy.

I hope for better weather tomorrow, right in the morning...

The end!

P.S.: Then there's the issue with the spelling mistakes....

On Monday we went to an agritourism. This is widespread in Italy and usually includes a larger dinner with local specialties. For us, we went to the Clantenova winery, south of Florence. The winery produces different versions of Tuscan wine Chianti. For 40 euros per person, we got a pitch for the night, a tour of the winery, a wine tasting, and dinner. We enjoyed the evening with 2 other camper couples. We got along really well with Lena and Rubin and spent a long time together in the evening. The wine was free for the whole evening ;-)

Rubin is 22 years old, was on the TV show 'Höhle der Löwen' a few years ago, and is now a successful entrepreneur with 10 employees. It's really interesting what he had to say about the show and his business.

On Tuesday, Julian and I went to Florence. Somehow, the city didn't catch our interest, and there were masses of tourists in the city, which dampened our mood a bit.

That's why we went hiking in the mountains on Wednesday. We found a beautiful hike to a waterfall.

And because we never have and had plans, we spontaneously drove to San Marino. It wasn't really on the way, but the detour was worth it. After researching the entry requirements, currency, etc., we drove straight there. San Marino was the 5th country of my trip :-) We really liked it there, the city of San Marino has an old town on a mountain including a castle and castle walls. This old town is completely geared towards tourists. If you're looking for jewelry, food, bags, or weapons, you're in the right place.

We didn't want to miss the Adriatic coast of Italy either. So, we went to the south of the Po Delta to the sea. It was nice there, but it can't compete with Sardinia's coast and sea :-)

We went to the Po Delta the next day. By the way, it's called Delta because the river is called Po. It is the longest river in Italy.

Well, that's also when it was time to say goodbye to Julian. In Padua, we had our last meal together before he took the night bus to Stuttgart.

Now I'm traveling alone again. The next few days will be all about driving, driving, driving. Today I drove a good distance and I'm on the Italian side of the 3-country border of Italy-Slovenia-Austria. Tomorrow I will cross the border and leave Italy behind.

Beautiful principality with 33,000 inhabitants.

After the many stressful cities like Bari, Naples, and Rome, we drove through the Italian countryside and especially through the completely snowy Apennine Mountains to San Marino, which Floh wanted to see so much because he has a little fascination for mini-states. Unfortunately, it was completely rainy and foggy there and not particularly warm. We spent the night on a very beautiful parking lot with a toilet in the green with sleeping bags and blankets and all sorts of clothes that kept us warm. We then made the visit to San Marino quite short because it was simply too cold and wet for me. Nevertheless, the old town up on the mountain is really nice to see, with the 3 small towers and the many narrow streets. See for yourself: