Card 18

Travels, San Marino

San Marino is a separate country, which our guidebook described as "a silly place". We saw it on a far hillside, and were drawn to it. It is totally contained within Italy, just a 20 km as the crow flies southeast of San Leo. After about 100 km of mountain roads, we arrived. Silly is a bad name. It is like a border town, on the low-tax side of the border. Showy stores hawk all manner of trash to tourists who come just to buy it. The best thing about it was the heels. Check out the heels on these two ladies. Even the statues have heels. Paid for by the shoe company? Amazingly, the (real) women wearing these things are shockingly agile. Despite their 6-8 inch heels, they bound right up the really quite steep hills. How does one argue with success?

Sunset from there was ... well... see for yourself.

'What a lovely sunset. do I detect a cell phone tower on top of that hill? I bet it hasn't been there very long. The statue is a crack up. She's wearing nothing but her hair and some heels, as if heels are the most vital part of a woman's dress. -- Kathy

They aren't? -- JB

In Italy, High heels Are the most important thing a woman can wear, That is what makes this such a quintessential Italian statement. It cracked me up too! -- M