For this day trip I wanted to see San Marino, as microstates are fascinating, and it would be my 60th country visited. Public transportation would have been inconvenient, so we decided to get a rental car. That prompted us to look at additional stops along the way and we were intrigued by the “open air art gallery” town of Dozza, so we decided to make that our first stop.
We picked up our car, an all-electric BMW (much to Leandra’s chagrin), from Sixt at train station and were on the road by 9:30a. Thirty minutes later we were parking the car on the outskirts of Dozza.
At 10a the town was still quiet and sleepy. There are two main streets, so we walked a loop, checking out all the outdoor murals. Each piece is different, with an artist label and year, and it really did feel like an outdoor gallery.
And both streets take you to Sforza Castle.
Dozza is also well-known for Enoteca Regionale Emilia Romagna, a wine cellar under the castle. In the late morning the one staff person was busy the whole time, but we found some bottles to purchase, including the Lambrusco we had two days prior.
From town there is a “Dozza wine trail” that we tried but it was a bust – down from the Castle was a maze of trails with no view, and away from Castle was a road with a narrow shoulder, then a dirt road. There may be views if you persevere, but we gave up.
For lunch we went to Ristorante La Scuderia. Thankfully we had a reservation, as they were busy on this Saturday! We were seated inside, which was a blessing since the outdoor patio was full sun with no shade, still quite intense in early October.
Leandra tried the bigoli (onions and cherry tomatoes) and paired with her go-to wine, Sangiovese. I ordered the Garganelli boscaiola, which was rich and extremely flavorful, maybe the best pasta of the trip, and paired it with a regional Famoso (lovely floral notes, lychee, passion fruit, other tropical notes, with a medium acidity. Very nice).
Full from our lunch we headed back to the car for the drive to San Marino! The Italian highway was uneventful, with lots of industrial buildings and farms. Once in San Marino we climbed up to 2400 feet!
Città di San Marino itself is very vertical, with multiple elevators, and roads that look like they are top of each other in maps. Things were surprisingly busy, with more tourists than expected, and lots of touristy shops.
Our first objective was a panoramic view given the height we’d driven up.
Next, we wanted to check out the famous watch towers, Guaita and Cesta. Unbeknownst to us, tickets for the towers are half price after 4p (since they close at 4:50). We decided to do it and speed ran Towers 1 & 2! Tower 1 had a very narrow stair ladder to the top, with great views, and Tower 2 had a lot of weapons plus some additional views.
With the towers completed we next checked out the Basilica di San Marino church and Palazzo Pubblico.
Overall, the streets are charming if you can get off the main roads that are full of people.
However, we couldn’t find a decent wine bar, so instead we decided to hit a supermarket on the way our town and buy two bottles of San Marino wine to try at home (8€ & 12€ respectively).
With the sun starting to set we got back to our car and started the 2 hour journey back to Bologna. The traffic lights to the highway were incredibly long, 2-3mins each, to allow people to make u-turns. No wonder people were running them!
Altogether a long day but we were glad to check out part of the countryside and experience another country.