The Montale, the third tower you only see from outside

The Montale is the tower people talk about least and skip most, and I can see why. You can’t go in, there’s no museum and it sits at the far end of the path. Even so, to me it’s a different sort of visit altogether, a walk through the woods of Titano that ends at a locked tower. Here’s what you’ll find and when it’s worth the effort.

The third tower, the one that stays shut

The Montale is San Marino’s Third Tower, the most remote of the three. Wikipedia dates it to the 14th century and describes it as the only one of the three not open to the public. The State Museums don’t list it among their sites, and the official list of places the pass opens leaves the Montale out, which confirms there’s no official way in.

The same Wikipedia article says its only entrance is a door about seven metres off the ground, typical of the prisons of the period. That detail alone makes me look at it differently. A tower with its door at that height was built so that nobody got in or out easily, and seeing it from below with that in mind changes the picture.

Getting there from the Cesta

The path starts at the Cesta, the Second Tower. The private site sanmarinosite.com describes it as an easy woodland walk of about twenty minutes. It’s the least crowded stretch of the ridge, because plenty of people turn back at the second tower, and that’s exactly why I’d do it. It’s a forest path rather than an old-town street, though, so I’d leave the smooth-soled shoes at the hotel.

There’s no ticket desk and no opening hours to worry about, as you can’t go in. What does set the clock is the rest of the route. In autumn the Guaita and the Cesta close at 16:50, so I’d do the two paying towers first and leave the Montale until last, when nobody’s closing time matters any more.

Is the Montale worth it if you can’t go inside?

It depends what you’re after. With a single morning and a wish to see the essentials, no. I’d settle for the Guaita, the First Tower, the battlemented walkway and the Cesta, then turn round. That’s what I’d do in a hurry.

With half an hour spare, yes. The reward isn’t the tower, it’s the walk, and a free stretch that most visitors never reach is rarely a bad use of half an hour. Stepping off the most photographed stretch of San Marino into Titano’s woodland is a change of pace the town itself doesn’t offer. And there’s a small satisfaction in ticking off all three towers from the coat of arms, even if you only see the last one from outside. If you still feel like walking, the walking trails on Mount Titano carry on from here.

Don’t mix up the tower and the Montale tunnel

Search for Montale San Marino and a tunnel may come up. That’s not the tower. According to Wikipedia, the Galleria Montale is a tunnel on the old Rimini to San Marino railway, the narrow-gauge line opened in 1932 that stopped running in 1944 after a bombing raid. In 2012 a stretch of about 800 metres including the tunnel was restored, and since 2022 it has been used for visitors. It’s a separate outing in a separate place, and I tell the railway’s story in my history of San Marino.

The third tower on the flag and in your wallet

Even closed, the Montale is part of the Republic’s image. UNESCO includes the towers, walls, gates and bastions of Titano in the site it listed as World Heritage in 2008, and this tower belongs to that ensemble even without a ticket desk or opening hours. The three towers on the coat of arms are the Guaita, the Cesta and the Montale, and the ECB records that the 1-cent coin of the first series of San Marino euros shows the Third Tower. It’s the lowest-value coin of all, which has a certain irony for the most retiring of the towers.

Combining it with the first and second towers in one outing is easy with my plan for the Three Towers of San Marino.