Mount Titano, the rock that holds up a country

From the beach at Rimini you can pick out a block of rock rising sharply above the hills, with three towers along its crest. That’s Mount Titano, and without it there would be no San Marino. The city, the fortresses and the legend of the saint all come from this mountain, and I see it as the country’s real attraction, more than any museum sitting on top of it.

A 755-metre rock with three peaks

The official height comes from the State Museums, and it’s 755 metres at the top of the Second Tower, the Cesta, the highest point of Titano. You’ll see other numbers around, 739 metres on Wikipedia or 749 and 756 on a private website, but for me the state’s figure wins. What strikes you isn’t so much the height as the shape. It’s an almost sheer block above gently rolling hills, with three peaks in a line and a tower on each.

According to a private website about the territory, the rock is a mix of limestone and sandstone, the remains of a huge undersea plate from around twenty million years ago, and the same plate produced other outcrops nearby, such as the crag of San Leo. I’m no geologist, but it helps me understand why Titano looks as if it was placed there on purpose, and why it was so easy to defend. If that other rock tempts you, I cover it in San Leo, next to San Marino.

Why a country was born here

By tradition, it all began on 3 September 301. A Dalmatian stonemason from the island of Arbe, Marinus, fled Diocletian’s persecution and set up a small Christian community on Titano. The same tradition says the mountain’s owner, a woman from Rimini called Felicissima, gave it to the community. It’s legend, and no official source treats it as fact, but every 3 September the state still marks its feast of the patron saint and of the founding.

The documented part comes later. The core of the Guaita dates from the 11th century, a guard post and shelter for the mountain’s first settlers according to the State Museums, and the Cesta appears by name in a document of 1253. Before it was a postcard, the mountain was a natural fortress. I tell the rest in the history of San Marino.

What to do on Titano

First, the tower walk. The Guaita and the Cesta can be visited inside on the single State Museums pass, which costs €11, and the Cesta keeps some 700 old weapons in its arms museum. Between them runs a battlemented stretch of about 200 metres, the Passo delle Streghe, which a private website says looks out along the coast from Cesenatico to Pesaro. For me, it’s the best time you can spend in San Marino.

The Montale, the third tower, doesn’t open inside. It’s roughly twenty minutes from the Cesta through the trees, and its only door is roughly seven metres off the ground, typical of prisons of its time according to English Wikipedia. The full route from Piazza della Libertà to the Montale and back, going into the first two, takes around three hours. I look at all three together in the Three Towers of San Marino.

If it’s views you’re after, you’re spoilt for choice up here. The Guaita’s bell tower commands the entire city and, far off, Malatesta strongholds like Verucchio, while the Penna tower looks over the flatlands to the sea and, southwards, to Monte Carpegna. I rank them with scores in the viewpoints of San Marino.

Getting up, and when to go

You reach the ridge on Bonelli’s bus from Rimini, which takes 55 minutes and costs €7, or from Borgo Maggiore by cable car, with a departure every fifteen minutes. By car you leave the vehicle in the numbered car parks, because the centre is a limited traffic zone. The practical detail is in getting around San Marino.

Seasonally, remember it’s a mountain. According to Arpae data quoted by English Wikipedia, the average January high is around 6 °C, November is the wettest month and above 400 or 500 metres it snows nearly every winter, as I set out in San Marino weather. I’d go up in spring or early autumn, first thing in the morning, when the cliff has its best light and the coaches haven’t arrived yet.