A three-in-one holiday in San Marino, Rimini and Bologna
Hilltop microstate is good for shopping, while nearby Rimini in Italy is big on Roman history and tourist-friendly Bologna offers a slice of la dolce vita, writes Tim Pile.
"This is the only country in the world with more cars than people," a filling station attendant in tiny San Marino eagerly tells me. "It's also the only one without any traffic lights. Look it up if you like."
Delighted as I am to discover someone with a shared interest in useless trivia, there's a story behind the statistics. Taxes are lower than in neighbouring Italy so it's much cheaper to register vehicles there. Many Italians do.
The hilltop republic is a short drive from the holiday hotspot of Rimini. Fertile coastal plains give way to rolling uplands which culminate in a series of sharp hairpin bends. All of a sudden, San Marino looms up Rock of Gibraltar-like and, before I know it, I've crossed into Europe's oldest sovereign state.
I park the hire car in the historic centre and join sightseers huffing and puffing up towards three photogenic medieval towers. We're rewarded with sweeping views across the principality and surrounding Italian countryside, although for most visitors, the real reward is a spot of retail therapy.
Sammarinese commercial rents are suffering from a bout of altitude sickness but the sleek and stylish stores do an excellent job of enticing flush-faced foreigners to shop until they drop. The problem is, there's not much else to do. If, say, Pacific Place were dismantled then rebuilt on top of Lantau Peak - and given independent status - you would have something approaching the anomaly that is San Marino.