Not to miss

Chiesa di San Francesco

Founded in 1361, and added holus-bolus to the Grey Friars convent, the Chiesa di San Francesco is the oldest building in the republic. It has suffered the indignities of numerous botched repair jobs and a few unsympathetic restorations, but the front of the building and the porch have been restored to the original line of its original builder, Gino Zani.

The wooden crucifix of the altar dates back to 300AD and probably comes from the antique church of Murata, which Pope Clemente VII had moved to the safer and more defensible location of the San Marino convent when the neighbourhood started going in for turf wars back at the beginning of the 16th century. There are a number of paintings by Niccolo Alunno of Foligno to add artistic and historical credibility to the church, and a rather fetching loggia at the back.

Chiesa San Pietro

Just to the right of the Basilica del Santo is the tiny church of San Pietro. In San Marinese terms it's the spring chicken of churches, having only been built at the beginning of the 19th century. As late as 1914, a crypt was built underneath the church to conserve the urn in which the bones of the Saint are resting.

The church's impressive staircase has been carved out of the bell tower of the high basilica.

The apse has also been chiselled out of the rock face, with two rather small holes gouged from its surface - popular tradition has it that these were the less-than-salubrious sleeping cells of San Marino and San Leo. Disregarding the fact that it would be a miracle to get a good night's sleep in either of these holes-in-the-wall, locals are firmly convinced that these niches have miracle-making properties.

On the church's marble altar is a statue of San Pietro, the work of the sculptor Enrico Saroldi.

Cesta

From La Rocca you can take a panoramic stroll across to the Second Tower, sometimes known as Cesta or Fratta. Built at an elevation of 756m (2480ft) on Mount Titano, it's the highest-standing of the fortresses, and dates back to the 13th century. It mirrors the pentagonal shape of La Rocca and, like that tower, was also used as a prison. You get the feeling that, for a small republic the size of a few suburbs, it sure had a lot of penal activity and penitence going on.

The San Marino Museum of Antique Weapons is housed in what was formerly the guardrooms and castle-keepers' rooms. The collection of sharp pointy objects that constitute the quaint medieval notion of a killing machine includes swords, knives, lances, firearms, bows and crossbows. There's also armour to protect oneself from the sharp pointy objects. More than 500 objects follow the history of weaponry from the late 800s to medieval times.

Other pieces of the collection, which numbers over 1550 objects, can be found at the descriptively (albeit prolixly) named Centre for Studies on Weaponry from the Middle Ages to the 1900s at the nearby township of Borgo Maggiore.