San Marino is one of the world’s smallest countries in size. It is landlocked, surrounded by Italy.

Tucked away in the Appennine Mountains, it is one of the oldest sovereign states in the world dating back to the 4th century.

San Marino was our destination today, third time lucky.

In 2018 we abandoned our ride to San Marino, caught in the wettest spring experienced in over 30 years, and we trained to Bologna.

In 2020 I was a scheduled ride leader for Italy Bike Tours including the San Marino stage of the Giro d’Italia. Covid cancelled the Giro.

2023, could it, would it happen?

To get here we had a few challenges for sure. Three climbs.

You are thinking that you can only see two climbs? Check the 22 km point. That little pimple. That was a seriously hard 18% on shiny cobbles for only 900 metres but it was hard as.

We got to that climb after leaving our accommodation and spending most of the time on a super busy arterial road with little to no verge.

We thought Santarcangelo di Romagna would be a reprieve. We got up the hill one way or another. It was the other for me, as I do not do 18% cobbles let alone on a loaded bike.

Nice old buildings, cobbled laneways and arches overlooking the modern town.

I liked this map showing our destination like a kids story book with the king living in the palace at the top of the big hill, but we had no horse to ride, we had a bike to achieve our conquest.

Hill number two, growing in length, around 6 km climbing, although the first few were only 2-3%, with around 6-7% majority of the rest.

Verucchio is known as the cradle of the Malatesta family, where the came to power in the late 1100’s. Structured as a medieval village, rich in historical buildings built on two hills with views towards San Marino and the Adriatic coast.

Climbing up we had the road to ourself for the majority. Nice views. It was quite hot climbing here too as it was open with minimal shade opportunities.

At the top we explored the main piazza, viewing some of the old buildings, laneways, art works, views, also finding some cold drinks and refreshments that we ate in the piazza below.

San Marino loomed closer and closer. The view from Verucchio, but first we needed to descend, so we could climb. Of course!

The climb to San Marino is 9.9 km long gaining around 550 m elevation. The weather was looming as a potential challenge.

As we climbed it sprinkled with rain, but the noise was enormous with the thunder gods having an extended period of noise activities. By now, I am a little more used to the noise, comforted by the fact that rarely does lighting seem to accompany the noise.

The Tour de France starts in Italy next month with a stage from Florence passing through San Marino. I will watch with interest. They will have road closures for their climb, wishing I did today.

The climb was the scariest climb I have ever done due to the traffic. The road was mostly narrow with vehicles ever so close, many speeding. I have no hairs remaining on my left arm and leg they were so close.

In other spots, drivers cut us off, at roundabouts, intersections wanting to ‘beat us’ and save a few seconds. They would pass and turn right leaving us in a potential t bone position. The number of shouts out I gave!!

I was almost biblical in my thoughts, just hoping we would come out unscathed. The gradients were up to 12%, more often than not 5-9%.

Two divine intervention moments did occur.

The first were roadworks where there were two lanes heading up. The right hand lane was closed for around 1 km but we could use it bar one small section. That gave us a huge reprieve climbing in traffic.

The second was just after a super tight right hand hair pin bend. There was a bus behind me, and a long queue of cars descending. After a short time I realised the bus had not passed me and the descending queue was growing.

That must mean there was a blockage at that tight hairpin so I used the opportunity to put my foot down a bit and climb harder whilst we had that single lane to ourselves, knowing it would eventually catch up with us.

I reckon we got one km out of that issue, to our benefit.

Wonderful views looking towards Tuscany.

Up and up we continued around hair pin bends until we arrived in the centre, where cars are banned from travelling further! Boom, boom!

A final climb and we are at our accomodation, boasting incredible views from our bedroom.

We went for a walk to get a feel for this ‘country’. The three Torres towers are all fortifications with the first built in the 1200’s. The walk between the three is known as the Witches Walk due to stories of witches doing witchy rituals there in the medieval period.

What a day. A tough ride for cycle packing without a doubt. But we did it. TICK.

Thanks for reading 😊❣️