Elroy's "San Marino"

The castle of San Marino sits on a hill of about 2000 feet overlooking the landscape with an eastern view of the Adriatic Sea south of Venice. It was founded in 350 A. D. stone-cutter St. Marinus fleeing persecution. Although consisting of only 38 square miles it is renowned as the oldest independent state in the world and Europe's smallest country. As an country surrounded by Italy it has maintained its independence from Italy for centuries probably by some clever diplomacy. About 10% of its income come from the selling of postage stamps to collectors. It also has an active tourist industry because everyone wants to go to San Marino, of course. When we went there they had a large display of Medieval torture devises. It still haunts me that people can be so cruel.

[wikipedia.com]