San Marino Postcard

   Rocca Guaita                                             Image by: centralvacanzesanmarino.com

Dear Ella,

    Do you remember when we used to talk about was it was like on the opposite side of the world? All that my tiny brain capacity has to offer is that we were just so excited about it, planning every little thing. I still have in mind after all those years your passionate, confident voice and your adventurous attitude.
   My good friend and I have decided to travel around Europe to open new boundaries to discover many more of the beautiful cultures that are yet to be found.
   One of those happened to be a tiny country in located in Italy. How it came to exist is remains a mystery until now, but the citizens say the legend it all began in the 4th century when two monks from Croatia fled from persecution. One of the men had special powers and built a church. And voilà, San Marino was born.
    The most popular tourist attraction here turned out to be the most exhausting. We had to trek up thousands of flights of stairs and I got slightly dehydrated. I wanted to go back to the hotel but my friend insisted on continuing.
    When I got to the very top and slowly opened my eyes, the view was absolutely incredible. A panoramic view of the entire city was given before me. It felt like reality Game of Thrones, to be honest (the first thing that came into my mind). The little red houses scattered in the city side, contrasted to the calming, vast plains of San Marino.
   I need to take you there someday, Ella.

Sincerely, 

Yulina Goto

San Marino News

MINNOWS HIT BACK AT WORLD CHAMPIONS GERMANY
One of the teams was a "team of amateurs," while the other won the 2014 World Cup. Germany won San Marino 8-0 in the World Cup qualifier, but San Marino tried to smash the world champions in the verbal dispute between the two nations. Germany was ranked second in the world by FIFA, while San Marino was ranked 201st out of 211 associations. Rummenigge, chief of Bayern Munich, said it had "nothing to do with proffesional football," and was critical about the situation. These comments got a response from San Marino, and an apology was requested from them.

HEAVIEST STORM IN YEARS BEARS DOWN ON SAN MARINO
A powerful storm moved to the Southland, forcing officials to send out evacuation orders before rain even started falling. The evacuation orders affected 180 homes, and classes were cancelled. Volunteers went around from house to house, warning the residents and telling them to evacuate beginning Thursday night. The evacuation center was set up at the City Hall Community Center, 1600 Huntington Drive. Rain was expected to start falling on Thursday night all the way to Saturday morning. A flash flood could also be present from Friday morning to Saturday morning. There is a possibility that there could be more rain on Tuesday.

MAN, 25, ARRESTED IN CONNECTION WITH HOMICIDE OF ELDERLY ALHAMBRA WOMAN
A man was arrested on Thursday for the death of a 78-year-old woman. She was found unconscious with blunt force trauma to her upper body. Officers found the unconscious woman, identified as Moon Cheung, laying outside of her house. She was dead even before the officers have arrived. According to a family member, a man knocked on their door and showed them where Cheung was lying. When the family member went out of the house, the man entered the house and locked the door. When the house was searched, the man was not found inside. But a few hours later, a suspicous person was found in a shed not far from the house. The suspect was caught and identified as Milton Chavez. Milton is expected to appear in court on Friday.

San Marino Journal
Monday, December 21st Museum of Torture

    Since the infamous Torture Museum here had a good rating on TripAdvisor, I decided to stroll around there for a while, you know. Why not take a look at a whole collection of devices invented by man to inflict physical pain on man. Definitely not something positive, but I thought it would be a good opportunity to learn some history, too.
    The overall atmosphere was rather queer, with grotesque, bloody wax figures depicting the victims, and torture instruments placed in every corner of the room.
    San Marino seems to have a peaceful history, but I guess it just doesn't work like that. During the medieval ages, the Roman Catholic Church set up an institution to discover and punish acts of heresy (having beliefs contrary to the official religion). They compelled the accused into 'confession' using the torture instruments. If they admit their sin, they were executed. If they deny the accusation, they would be tortured to death.
    The museum displays over 100 gruesome torture devices like the Inquisitory Chair and the Knee-Breaker, exemplifying how limitless one's imagination can be when it came to brutality and causing someone to suffer. It is truly depressing to know that this is a part of  humanity. We are the result of 3.5 billion years of evolution, after all.

(Right now, Roman Catholicism dominates over other religions in San Marino, with 97.2% of the population being Roman Catholics)

The Inquisitory Chair
                                                                 Image by: tripadvisor.ca

 The Knee-Breaker

Image by: meineAdria.com

Tuesday, December 22nd  Palazzo Public

San Marino has the oldest written governing documents still in effect. Yeah, we were shocked by that too when the tour guide at the castle (now a government building) told us that. It isn't a formal constitution, but a series of six books, Leges Statutae Republicae Sancti Marini (Law of the Republic of San Marino), written in Latin during the late 16th century. It describes civil law procedures, the various councils, criminal law, and citizen rights. The Sammarinese have been following it from the beginning of the 17th century, and politics have been going smoothly ever since.
"We are very proud of our country," the tour guide boasted (honestly she was a bit too proud).
    She went on to explain that there are two Head-of-States that are elected, each one from opposing parties to provide checks and balances. Every six months, they are reelected to prevent them from exploiting their authority. Citizens can file complaints against the Head-of-States if they fail to fulfill their promises (although the tour guide assured us that that was never necessary).
    Because of this, San Marino is sometimes referred to "the nation of peace and freedom." Even though the country may be the fifth smallest in the world, the government surely runs efficiently! 

The government building, or the Palazzo Pubblico ("Public Place").
                                                                                                                 Image by: sanmarinosite.com

Wednesday, December 23rd  San Marnino High School

    
     So, when we were trying to find the art museum (because who doesn't want to learn to paint like Da Vinci), a high school girl carrying a bright backpack approached us.
    She asked,
    "Are you guys trying to go to the Museo delle Curiosità?"

  She had an Italian accent of course, but otherwise her English was good! I was impressed, but I guess you could expect that for a country with a literacy rate of 96%. Look at us, the U.S. is only at 86%!

   She friendly guided us there, only to find out that IT WAS CLOSED (fine, fine, it was because I didn't check the opening hours).

   The girl probably sensed that I was feeling under the weather, so she offered us a visit to her school. When we first took a look at San Marino High School, it was just... beautiful (I'm sorry, I couldn't think of any other adjective). The walls were perfectly covered with a layer of paint, and even the bushes were trimmed into this square shape!
    It turns out the reason for this is that the Sammarinese put a lot of value in education, and pay high property taxes that are used mostly on public elementary and secondary education. Makes sense, right? This makes everything free, basically, including school lunch and textbook fees. The only con to this is that San Marino's economy isn't looking very good nowadays, so the extra costs may feel frustrating for parents. Whether of not the property taxes should be heavily spended on school maintenance is an ongoing debate. I'm not exactly an expert in this field, but I hope they can continue funding the schools!

 Image by: pasadenaindependent.com

 
P.S. Yes! I knew coming to San Marino was a good choice. I learned a new thing today:
SCHOOLS IN SAN MARINO ARE SO CLEAN AND SATISFYING TO LOOK AT!
                                                                               

WHY WE ARE TRAVELLING
(we'll edit this later)