Borgo Maggiore, the market town at the foot of Titano

Nearly everyone who goes up to San Marino passes through Borgo Maggiore without really registering it. It’s the town below, the one with the cable car station, and I think it deserves more than a quick change of transport. It has a market square that was already trading in the 12th century, a clock tower by the same architect as the Palazzo Pubblico and an everyday local life that’s hard to find up in the capital.

The Mercatale that gave the town its name

San Marino’s government dates the town to the 12th century, as a trading post at the foot of the rock. That’s why it was called Mercatale, the place of markets and fairs, and only in 1879 did it become Borgo Maggiore. Today it’s the country’s second most populated castello, with 7,019 residents on 30 June 2026 and 9.01 km², and it’s home to the state hospital and its A&E and the social security institute.

The trading habit is still plain to see. The Thursday market sets up in Piazza Grande, under the arcades and across the squares. I need to be careful here, because the same official page gives two different times, one from 06:00 to 14:00 and another from 08:00 to 12:00. What’s certain is that it’s a morning affair, so I’d arrive early. Nearby, on Strada Serrabolino, is the leading winery for San Marino wine, whose shop also opens on Saturday mornings. At the weekend there’s the MER.LO local producers’ market on Saturday mornings, except in January and February, and an antiques market every third Sunday, March onwards.

The square, the tower and an unexpected sanctuary

Piazza Grande is dominated by the clock tower, built in 1896 by Francesco Azzurri, the Roman architect behind the Palazzo Pubblico of San Marino. The Suffragio church, from the 18th century, opens off the square, and on one side stands the house of Domenico Maria Belzoppi, the regent who took Garibaldi in. A little higher, in Piazza di sopra, an inscription recalls that Anita and Giuseppe Garibaldi and their troops were given shelter here in 1849. The last act of that retreat was played out under the portico of the church of San Quirino, up in the capital.

What I didn’t expect was the sanctuary of the Madonna della Consolazione, by Giovanni Michelucci. After so much medieval-style stone on the hill, a 20th-century building of that quality is, for me, the best reason to give the town an extra half hour. The Teatro Concordia and the Centro Naturalistico Sammarinese, which doubles as a natural history museum, round things off.

Beyond the old centre, the castello breaks up into villages with characters of their own. Cailungo has the hospital and the campsite, Valdragone the Poor Clares and the Immaculate Heart shrine, Ventoso looks out over the Riviera on the road to Verucchio, and San Giovanni sotto le Penne holds the Roman kilns of Maiano.

The cable car and the old railway

The lower cable car station sits, as the government puts it, right beside the town’s old quarter. A cabin leaves every quarter of an hour and drops you next to the centre of the capital. In the last quarter of the year it operates from 07:45 until 19:00, and in 2026 it’s out of action for tests between 21 and 23 October. A single is €4, a return €7, and children under 120 cm go free. Fares and times sit in the San Marino cable car.

Before the cable car there was a train. Piazza Grande had one of the stations on the little blue and white railway from Rimini to San Marino, opened in 1932 and halted in 1944 after the bombing, according to Italian Wikipedia. Its tunnel can be walked, as the castello page says, and it’s the kind of corner that tells me more about the country than a row of souvenir shops. I’ve grouped it with other walks in walking trails in San Marino.

Walking up to the city?

It’s a common question. There’s a path up from Borgo, the Rupe trail, but the only official description I know of is on a website I haven’t been able to use, so I won’t give you a distance or a time. I’d ask at the tourist office before setting off. For a normal visit the cable car is quicker, and the view from the cabin is worth the €4.

Getting there and where to leave the car

Bonelli’s bus from Rimini stops in Borgo Maggiore, at Bar Forcellini, before carrying on to the capital, and a ticket to here costs €6 rather than €7. By car, a private website quoting the parking office places P11 beside the lower cable car station, at €1.50 an hour. If you’re staying the night, Borgo has the advantage of easy parking and a car-free ride up to the city. Accommodation choices are covered in where to stay in San Marino. Near the cable car, in Cailungo, is Hotel Crocenzi, a kilometre from the lower station.