“Wars end, but neighbors remain.” What a great philosophy, and probably the one that made it possible for the oldest continuous democracy to remain independent while the rest of Italy united. That, and a really steep mountain that was easy to defend.
While I didn’t find a restaurant in California to represent the country of San Marino, a note on the Internet that said that the cuisine of San Marino is similar to that in Tuscany. For that reason, Gladys, Laurie, Joanie, Phyllis, Cathy, and I ate at Tuscan Son in Los Angeles. We had three kinds of lasagna (one regular, one with zucchini as noodles, and another with eggplant as noodles), cauliflower with Bolognese sauce, salmon, and a braised green lentils, bread, and tomato soup. Everything was so delicious, but the server had never heard of San Marino, so I decided to look further.
Less than a mile away from Tuscan Son is Eataly, an amazing Italian market. Again trying to get close to San Marino, I ordered fresh garganelli pasta from the bordering Italian region of Emilia-Romagna. One of the workers also helped me pick out a thick dried spaghetti and some biscotti from Tuscany. I added chocolate bars for Allan to my purchases, but I was still lacking something directly from San Marino.
Vonnett and Kevin came to my rescue and we cooked to represent San Marino. The brioche toast with burrata cheese, tomato, avocado, and balsamic glaze was delicious. The lemon egg drop soup exceeded all expectation (Keven and I had seconds). The lasagna rolls were amazing. We would make them again. And the dessert – oh the dessert! Mixing whipped cream and nutella is brilliant! Putting it between waffle wafers is even more wonderful. Putting gelato on top is just adds another layer of amazing. Thanks to Trader Joes for the wafers and burrata cheese. I found everything else at the well-stocked Stater Bros in Grand Terrace. Here are the recipes: https://www.internationalcuisine.com/about-food-and-culture-of-san-marino/
Once I had eaten, I turned to literature. In The Enjoy Agenda by Rick Bailey, they spend much more time in nearby Pesaro, Italy than they do in San Marino, but I’m counting it because the author’s wife is Sammarinese and she is with him pretty much the entire book. I have to count it, because I can’t find any other literature for San Marino available at the library.
For history and poetry see:
· “The Republic of San Marino” by William Miller published in The American Historical Review in 1901: https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1834173.pdf
· The poem “The Tram Journey” by Milena Ercolani: https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/tram-journey/
For music:
· The first time San Marino participated in the Eurovision song contest was in 2008 with the band Miodio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmMmky9R0Ws
· The first time they reached the finals was in 2014 with Valentina Monetta and her song Maybe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt_3yms1PcM
· My favorite of the San Marino submissions to Eurovision is this one by Serhat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5arNtTYK1s
· San Marino has also competed in the Junior Eurovision song contest. Here is the entry from 2015: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SYekWoAtqQ
· And for a blast from the past, Little Tony, a 1960s pop star, was from San Marino: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKYBFApRa5Q
To tour San Marino:
· I recommend Rick Steves for the professionalism and a good overview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSqoEhWd9cM
· But it was also fun to watch this guy climb Mount Titano in the dark: https://youtu.be/EKnhZSzp_lM
If I were going, I would want to visit each of these places https://www.thecrazytourist.com/15-best-places-visit-san-marino/#more-7548 and yes, I would love to go! I look forward to that time when we can travel broadly again. In the meantime, I’m hoping we all survive, thrive, recognize our mutual humanity, learn to deal with our conflicts, and allow peace, health, and safety to flourish in San Marino and throughout the world.
Photo Credit: Ivan Zanotti https://www.flickr.com/photos/ivan1311/14580708706/
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