Map of San Marino, from Titano down to the Dogana border

Look for San Marino on a map of Europe and you’ll find a dot inside Italy, just behind Rimini, and that dot is misleading. Up close it’s a mountain with a capital on the ridge, a castello at its foot and seven more spread over the hills, down to the road that brings everything in from the coast. Here’s how to read it, and further down is my map of the part you’ll visit.

Where San Marino is

In north-east Italy, just inland from the Adriatic, level with Rimini. All around it is Italian territory. Rimini province borders it to the west, north and east, and Pesaro and Urbino to the south, which puts it right on the line between Emilia-Romagna and the Marche. It has no coastline and no border other than the Italian one.

Distances are short. Leaving the A14 motorway at Rimini Sud, the SS72 expressway covers roughly 22 km to the historic centre, and Rimini airport is 27 km away. Bologna is roughly 135 km and Ancona 110 km along the coast, according to a tourist information website. The ways to cover them, from the Bonelli bus to trains from Bologna, are in getting to San Marino.

A country on three levels

What helps me make sense of a San Marino map is reading it top to bottom. On the ridge of Mount Titano is the City of San Marino, with the three towers strung along the cliff and the country’s highest point at the Cesta, 755 metres. It’s the area my map covers and the one UNESCO listed, 55 hectares taking in the mountain and the historic centre.

Halfway down, linked by cable car, is Borgo Maggiore, the market castello. Between the two stations there’s a 166-metre drop and 338 metres of cable. And below, on the plain opening towards the coast, lie Serravalle, the largest and most populous castello, and Dogana, which the government places on the main border beside the Rimini expressway. Each of the nine has its own story, told in the guide to the castelli of San Marino.

How to use the map on this page

The map covers the city and Borgo Maggiore, which is where nearly everything of interest to a visitor sits. Each pin is a page of this guide, from the Guaita to the cable car. What falls outside the frame, Dogana, Serravalle and the Falciano outlet, is on the plain and reached by car or on AASS buses.

For the same ground sorted by importance, with scores and times, see things to do in San Marino. And to see the map from the inside, nothing beats the Guaita’s bell tower, which looks over the whole city and, far off, castles such as Verucchio. The other high points I’d look for are in San Marino’s viewpoints.

The bus route, read as a map

The best way I know to grasp the country from the bottom up is to follow the stops of the Rimini bus, which crosses it end to end. After the station and the Arch of Augustus, it calls at Cerasolo, still in Italy, and at the Dogana outlet 26 minutes in. Then come Dogana Confine, Serravalle, the Croce at Domagnano and Borgo Maggiore, before it finishes in the city, first at Murata and then at the old railway station. In 55 minutes you’ve passed through four of the nine castelli without noticing you’d crossed a border. The full timetable is in Rimini to San Marino.

How big is San Marino compared with other countries?

It measures 61.19 km², the sum of its nine castelli, which ranks it third among Europe’s tiniest states, behind the Vatican and Monaco, which covers 2.08 km². So San Marino is nearly thirty times the size of Monaco, and you feel it. Monaco is a city; San Marino has woods, fields, industrial estates and villages, and moving between castelli takes more than your legs.

Getting about on the map

Inside the city everything is on foot, as the centre is a restricted traffic zone. Borgo Maggiore is one cable car ride away, and the rest of the country is served by AASS lines and the SMUVI on-demand service, all set out in getting around San Marino. Behind the wheel, check first where to leave the car in parking in San Marino, because the numbered car park map is the first one you’ll need.