[MR] San Marino

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble friends,

It has been a slow month history-wise. Today I was casting about for
something to share, and I stumbled upon a short video about San Marino. As
some of you may recall, I am a Samarese geek, particularly because their
famous crossbow corps.

The video is part of the Amazing Places series, and consists of short takes
of various towers and other medieval buildings in San Marino. It is
stunningly beautiful, and includes some of those stomach churning shots
looking down from high places to towns and villages below. The whole place
has a medieval fairyland quality.

Enjoy the show at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z0QykEeYg0 .

The film shows San Marino's famous three towers, which perch precariously
upon its highest peaks (as well as the country's flag and arms). The towers
are *Guaita* (11th century), *Cesta* (13th century) and *Montale* (14th
century). You can read about them at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Towers_of_San_Marino .

I have posted before about the San Marino Balestrieri, the crossbow corps,
but worth mentioning again. They have an extensive page, unfortunately all
in Italian, but filled with great pictures and lots of costume ideas:
https://www.federazionebalestrieri.sm/ .

Finally, at just 24 square miles, San Marino is the 5th smallest
independent country in the world. It has been a republic since around 1600,
although completely surrounded by Italy. More about this unique country is
found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Marino .

Yours Aye,

Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆
Continuing a crusade to keep the original Merry Rose relevant and in
business.