13 - San Marino, Sans Tax

San Marino is that little country, enclaved by Italy that is most well known to the English as being terrible at football following the most recent world cup qualifying campaign. We weren't too sure what to expect from this part of the trip where our stops are briefer to the detriment of our otherwise timely blog entries. We left Sulmona and joined the road north and, after an unremarkable stop for lunch at a beach en-route, found ourselves leaving Italy and entering the microstate in the North-Eastern part of Italy.

The first thing we noticed when crossing the border was the immediate drop in petrol prices caused by the low/non-existent taxes in this autonomous state; handy as Trevor was particularly thirsty. This realisation pretty much sums up our experience of San Marino where our income-less caution to spending went out the window on the hunt for duty free goodies.

For a few stops now, I had been searching for a pair of replacement sunglasses but hadn't quite convinced myself to part with the extortionate prices Italy charges for a set of Ray Bans after my former sunglasses broke on our day-trip to Rome. On going around the shops in San Marino on the first morning our eyes lit up, not only because I didn't have a good pair of shades, but because the same pair of Ray Bans I tried on in Rome were 40% less here. We made it our goal to get them as cheap as possible and trawled through many of the seemingly hundreds of sunglass-come-tobacconist shops that clearly target this tax-free tourist market. Of course, not wanting to feel left out, Melissa got in on the game too and for the first time in a long time we both found ourselves proud new owners of designer sunglasses. Melissa also found a new work style leather handbag that she'd been looking for and we were disciplined enough to call time on our spending there

The Republic of San Marino is a fascinating country with a capital city that shares it's name and where we spent our 2 nights. The "Old Town" is at the top of a hill with the most spectacular mountain backdrop and delightful winding streets. I say "Old Town" as there is something missing from the city that looks timeless. We were warned by our cooking host in Sulmona that San Marino is pretty but "fake". Having visited many hilltop towns throughout Italy that have historical buildings to spare, San Marino is a stark contrast that although built to look Roman and authentic has a distinctly unauthentic feel. The whole town shuts down at 7pm on the dot as the tourist buses depart for the day and the city feels somewhat empty and soulless. Even though we have cried out previously for the tourists to leave us to enjoy some peace and quiet, when they actually did leave in San Marino so did the buzz that should have been replaced by the locals milling about the trattorias or enotecas.

Not to do San Marino a disservice, it is a fascinating city/country after all, here are a few interesting facts:

• San Marino has 2 concurrent acting presidents ("Captains Regent") at any one time that are elected every 6 months; very similar to the Australian prime ministerial situation but in San Marino they are meant to only do 6 months on the job

• The country is officially known as "The Most Serene Republic of San Marino"

• San Marino is the worlds 5th smallest country

• San Marino had the first democratically-elected Communist government, from 1945 to 1957

• The country's football team has climbed to 2nd bottom in the world FIFA rankings and has only ever won 1 match out of the 150 matches it has played and concedes an average of 4.38 goals per game

A key theme to our trip so far is the easily identifiable twang of an Australian accent that has surrounded us around every corner. A foreboding insight in to what is to come for me at the end of the trip, Australians are bloody everywhere. We bumped into an older couple from Wollongong that had googled the same restaurant as us and were very keen to tell us all about their trip and how amazing they found San Marino to be. We didn't dislike San Marino, but certainly weren't filled with the same enthusiasm that these Aussies had for the place. We exchanged some travel tips and parted ways. Melissa, clearly feeling homesick, then decided to book the table next to them for dinner the next night. Our last night in San Marino was at a lovely restaurant "La Terraza" with a stunning sunset view over the mountains and the San Marino parliament building, drinking plenty of wine to make the awkward small-talk with this Australian couple that little bit less awkward.

To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, "in San Marino nothing can be said to be certain, except finding Australian tourists and no taxes."

J & M