The Trenino Bianco Azzurro, the railway San Marino lost to the war

Ask if you can reach San Marino by train and the short answer is no, but the long one is far more interesting. For twelve years an electric train climbed from Rimini to the city, and the Sammarinese still speak of it fondly by a toy-like name, the Trenino Bianco Azzurro, the little white and blue train, after its colours. Today a restored stretch survives, plus a tunnel you can walk through.

Twelve years of trains

According to Wikipedia, the line was paid for entirely by the Italian government of the day, following an agreement signed on 26 March 1927. Work began on 3 December 1928 with 3,000 labourers, and the railway opened on 12 June 1932. It was an electric narrow-gauge line of about 32 kilometres, 19.81 of them in San Marino, with 17 tunnels, two of them spirals, and the trip from Rimini to the city took about 53 minutes.

What strikes me most is that San Marino, a country with no coast and no airport, was linked to the seaside by train in under an hour, and lost it in a single summer.

The end in 1944

The bombing of 26 June 1944 damaged the line, and from 4 July regular service stopped. The last train ran on the night of 11 to 12 July. After the war there were calls to reopen it, but nothing came of them, and the Italian section was dismantled between 1958 and 1960. Curiously, according to the same source, the line is still recorded as a service suspended by the war rather than abandoned, which helped part of the route survive. What happened to the country that year is in the history of San Marino.

What’s left today

In 2012 about 800 metres including the Montale tunnel were restored, and on 21 July that year the refurbished AB 03 railcar was shown to the public. According to Wikipedia, the stretch was reopened for heritage use on 3 December 2022, and between February and June 2026 it was extended 140 metres to the old City station square, opened on 30 June. The government’s Economic Programme mentions extending it towards Borgo Maggiore, but for now that’s just a plan.

I haven’t found an official timetable or fare for rides, so I won’t promise you one. I’d ask at the tourist office on arrival. The Montale tunnel also has an art chapter, as the 1991 «Provoc’arte» exhibition brought an intervention by Maurizio Cattelan inside it, according to the State Museums, whose archive on it sits in the National Gallery. Hotel San Marino iDesign says on its website that a footpath into town runs through the old railway tunnel.

The Borgo Maggiore tunnel, on foot

What you can definitely do is walk the old route. The government explains that one of the stations stood in the Piazza Grande of Borgo Maggiore and that the tunnel can be walked through. Wikipedia adds that the Borgo and Montalbo tunnels now carry walkers and cyclists between the cable car car park and the cemetery road. Further down, from Laiala park in Serravalle to Domagnano, the old embankment is a path for walking and cycling.

How you get there now

With no train, the bus has taken the Trenino’s place. Bonelli’s shuttle leaves Rimini station and reaches the city in about 55 minutes for €7, much the same time the train took in 1932. Timetables and stops are in Rimini to San Marino.