Verucchio, the Malatesta town you can see from the Guaita

From the top of the Guaita, San Marino’s First Tower, you can see Malatesta castles in the distance, and one of them is Verucchio. I like starting there, because it explains why this village is the closest day trip from Mount Titano and one of the most rewarding. It’s 10 kilometres away, on a hill watching over the Marecchia valley, and it holds two stories that have nothing to do with each other.

Three thousand years before the Malatesta

The first story is genuinely ancient. Between the 9th and 6th centuries BC, Verucchio was a centre of the so-called Villanovan culture, now seen as the dawn of the Etruscans. Its more than 600 excavated tombs produced weapons, pottery and jewellery, but above all something that almost never survives, inlaid wooden thrones and preserved textiles. There was also a huge quantity of amber brought from the Baltic, which Greek merchants traded here for their own goods.

It’s all in the Archaeological Museum, which according to the Emilia-Romagna region was named among Europe’s ten best in 2000. For me it’s the main reason to come, and I’d put it ahead of the fortress. One Malatesta stronghold looks much like another, and this area has plenty; a wooden throne almost three thousand years old, on the other hand, is something you won’t see anywhere else on the trip.

Cradle of the lords of Rimini

The second story is the Malatesta’s. The first lord of Rimini, the «Old Mastiff» (1212-1312) whom Dante mentions in the Divine Comedy, came from Verucchio, and the village remained a family stronghold. His descendant Sigismondo is the one who built Rimini’s Tempio Malatestiano, covered in my guide to Rimini.

The village has barely changed since, with its lanes, stairways, walls and towers, and it stretches between two strongholds. The Rocca del Passerello later became a convent. The Rocca del Sasso, hanging over the valley, is one of the oldest and best-preserved fortifications in the region. Seeing it after San Leo is instructive, because you move from the Montefeltro’s showpiece to the fortress of the family that fought them for the valley for generations.

What else to see in the village

The Collegiata holds a canvas by Centino and two large crucifixes painted on panel, one from 14th-century Rimini and one 15th-century Venetian. The town’s art gallery has a modern collection that’s surprising in a village this size, with works by Picasso, Fontana, Vedova, Capogrossi and Vasarely, among others.

My favourite corner, for the story it tells, is the convent of Santa Croce. In its cloister grows a 13th-century cypress, the oldest tree in Emilia-Romagna, which tradition says Saint Francis caused to spring up in 1213. The church has a 13th-century crucifix from the school of Giunta and 14th-century frescoes from the Rimini school.

When to go and how to combine it

The region itself advises going on a clear, haze-free day, because from the top of the rock the view takes in the Marecchia valley and the whole Rimini coast down to the Adriatic. In mist you lose half the visit.

The main festivals, according to the same source, are the Verucchio Music Festival in July, the medieval dinners and shows at the Rocca in August, Verucchio Calici, a tasting of local wines, also in August, and the Fiera di Santa Croce in mid-September. I have no 2027 dates, so check before planning a trip around any of them.

The best way to visit, to my mind, is together with San Leo, 16 kilometres away. One €14.50 ticket, valid on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, covers San Leo’s fortress plus this village’s stronghold and museum. Starting up at San Leo and finishing here in the afternoon light is my idea of a perfect day.

Getting there from San Marino

Verucchio is 10 kilometres from San Marino and 16 from Rimini. I couldn’t find a readable official source for bus times to the village, so I’m treating it as a drive. Without a car, an organised tour of the Marecchia valley is the realistic option. Nearby, 5 kilometres away, is Torriana, and four more beyond it, Montebello, with the castle of the Azzurrina ghost legend. The other options, compared, are in day trips from San Marino.