San Marino iDesign, the design four-star outside the walls

The iDesign is the opposite of Hotel Titano. Where the Titano has 19th-century stone, narrow corridors and a pedestrian zone, this one has glass, steel, free parking by the door and a bar that never shuts. It stands at Via del Serrone 124, outside the walls, about a kilometre from the old town, and calls itself a latest-generation four-star. To me it’s the most sensible choice for anyone arriving by car or motorbike who doesn’t want to pay for parking.

Finding it, and getting up to the Città

The hotel is in Murata, the Città’s outlying district that stretches beyond the walls towards Fiorentino. If you come on the bus from Rimini, the hotel spells out the trick. At the San Marino terminal the bus waits about ten minutes; stay on, tell the driver you’re getting off at Murata, the first stop outside the centre, and you won’t need another ticket. The iDesign is 100 metres further along the same road. By car, at the end of the Rimini dual carriageway you turn towards Cattolica along the Strada Sottomontana. The whole bus journey is in Rimini to San Marino.

You can reach the old town by car or on foot. Here’s the detail on the website I like best. It says a footpath into town runs through the city’s ‘old tunnel’, where the train passed in the early 20th century. The story of that train and the Montale tunnel is in the Trenino Bianco Azzurro. One caveat, a kilometre in San Marino means uphill on the way there, so pace yourself.

Which room would I ask for at the iDesign?

The rooms follow the building’s idea. Big windows, no brick partitions, mirrored walls in the bathroom and surfaces of glass and steel. There are doubles, triples or quadruples that are also sold as superior doubles, and suites. All have Wi-Fi, TV, a safe, heating, air conditioning and a hairdryer. The minibar only holds water, because the bar is open 24 hours.

What really changes is which way you face. South-east-facing rooms look from the Adriatic coast to the towers of the old town, while those facing south-west or north-east are cosier and quieter. I’d go south-east without a second thought, because sleeping in San Marino without seeing Mount Titano or the sea loses half the fun.

For a couple’s break, the suite. It has a seating area, a roomy whirlpool bath and a view from Mount Titano and its old town right down to the coast, with Rimini and Riccione easy to spot. Among the hotels I’ve checked it’s one of the few rooms with a whirlpool, and I include it in my round-up of San Marino’s luxury hotels.

Free parking, and travelling by motorbike or bike

This is where the iDesign beats almost everyone. There’s a large free car park in front of the building and an underground garage with CCTV, plus covered space for motorbikes. In the Città you nearly always pay to park, by the hour in the public car parks or on the hotel rate, as I explain in parking in San Marino.

The hotel has made a speciality of bikers and cyclists. For motorbikes, the watched garage. For bicycles, an equipped bike room with hooks for road and mountain bikes, daily e-bike hire and a laundry for technical kit.

A hotel full of paintings

It’s the only hotel in San Marino I’ve checked that doubles as a gallery. Works by Rossano Ferrari, a painter from Modena, and other contemporary artists hang in the corridors and some rooms, and all of them are for sale. Since 2015 each floor has been dedicated to a country, the third to Africa and the fourth to Japan, and the hotel is home to the Japan San Marino Friendship Society. If art isn’t your thing, it won’t get in the way. If it is, it’s a bonus you don’t expect from a modern hotel on the outskirts.

What it doesn’t have, and who it’s for

It doesn’t serve meals on site, working instead with partner restaurants. Nor does its website give reception or breakfast hours, so if you’re arriving late, ring ahead on 0549 997298.

I’d recommend it to drivers and bikers, cyclists, couples who prefer design to old stone, and anyone using San Marino as a base for exploring Romagna. I wouldn’t pick it for a first one-night visit without a car, when sleeping inside the walls is worth it. For the other areas and hotels, head to where to stay in San Marino.