SAN MARINO REPUBLIC

According to tradition, the Republic of San Marino was founded in 301 A.D. and is now about 1700 years old. The Republic is small, its territory is partly hilly and generally poor. So too have its people always been small in number and poor. San Marino is organised with its own norms and unusual institutions that regulate and supervise the democratic functioning of all aspects of city life and international concerns. In these trying times of great changes and uncertainties, what is more unusual than a small country that has been able to remain viable, healthy and free against the domination of the strong and violations of rights?

RIMINI

Both an ancient and a new town, Rimini, capital of the newborn province of the same name, offers monuments from a famous past along with a most modern tourist organization. Ideal holiday destination for those willing to alternate relaxation on the beach, night entertainment in discos, and visits to art treasures from the past. Rimini was founded by the Romans in 268 B.C., as a strategic hub for commercial traffic. At the end of the 13th Century the Malatesta family transformed Rimini into a rich culture and art centre. This rich history is witnessed by Augustus' Arch, Tiberius' Bridge and the Malatesta's Temple. The town is divided in two lively and pulsating hearts

VERUCCHIO

Verucchio has an old soul, ennobled by the presence of a civilization still mysterious but, judging by the evidence left, among the most extraordinary in Italy. A pre-Etruscan people that settled here between XI and VI Century B.C. in thriving communities ruled by "Shepherd Princes". These people were related to one of the big centres of Villanova, near Bologna, but for its richness and the particularity of its archaeological finds archeologists talk about a real Verucchio Civilization.

SAN LEO

A sharp rock surrounded by perpendicular cliffs, the landscape descending gradually from the Appennines to the sea; old houses superimposed between a magnificent castle and an eye filling bell tower; a weaving of history and legend, the sacred and the profane, between horrible prisons and quiet parishes: all this is San Leo. In times of wars between the Goti and the Byzantines, the Longobardi and the Franks, San Leo saw its fame grow as an unconquerable fortress. In 963 Berengario II nominated it the capital of the Italic Kingdom, and for many months the small but strong town resisted the siege of Ottone I, Emperor of Germany.

SANT'ARCANGELO

Santarcangelo is a magic village with its noble and mysterious atmosphere, its centuries-old history, its millenary places like the Pieve (parish church), the tangle of tunnels that pierce its hill, its being the capital of dialect poetry and old traditions, its events and old fairs, like that of San Michele (September) and San Martino (November). A lot of places deserve a visit: its elegant churches the beautiful Ganganelli square, the tiny lanes of the old village, the Malatesta Castle, the Grottoes, the Armband Ball and Tamburello Games Museum, and the Ethnographic Museum of the People and Customs of Romagna, one of the most important demo-ethno-anthropological witness in Romagna.

GRADARA

It is a village of a unique Medieval beauty, it is situated in a panoramic scenery on a hill overlooking the Via Flaminia, Gradara is surrounded by a trapezoidal curtain of walls crowned by swallow-tailed Guelph merlons dating back to the IV century A.D. An intermediate curtain of walls crowned with towers and with an independent door assured a further protection of the fortress. The walls boundaries are crossed by a rampart walk. In the Western area the wall is strengthened by a powerful bulwark, the "Rocchetta".