12 Comments

This probably won't surprise you, but I have heard of San Marino. I also have a soft spot for not just remote, but off-the-grid, difficult-to-reach places that few know about and even fewer would care to go to (e.g.- a trip to Albania has always been a bucket list thing for me). San Marino actually does have a national soccer team, and watching them play powerhouse countries like France or Germany is...well, humorous.

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OF COURSE you've heard of San Marino! The only wonder is that you've never lived there. YET.

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There’s still time. 🤣😝👍🏻

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i was just there about 3 weeks ago. i recently moved to italy from the US, and i now live in Molise. i took a 2 week road trip up north and San Marino was my first stop for 1 night. the views are incredible!

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WOW! Now I'm fully committed to going. What do you think of Molise? That's another place I've never been.

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I believe I had heard of it before, but little or nothing beyond the name. I'd definitely heard of Romagnol ("somebody gargling hot rocks" definitely creates some auditor "images.")

By the bye, evidently if you move one village at a time, starting at the toe of Italy, moving up and across the south (but *ONLY* the south) of France, into Spain (skipping the Basque region) and down into Portugal, the local dialects form a mutual chain of intelligibility. But once you get more than one or two villages away, those dialects become unintelligible one to the other. And they are all dialects of Latin. Mass communication has flattened those differences out. But basically, Italian was the dialect of Latin spoken in Rome, French the dialect spoken in Paris, etc.

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INTERESTING! I did not know that. Very very cool.

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I took a couple of classes in linguistics (including an historical study) when I was at Occidental. The professor was really good. But then, everyone at Oxy was. (Part of the reason I am an unqualified fan and advocate of smaller, Liberal Arts colleges.)

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Stacey, I went there four? Years ago, on the day they changed the government. It was fascinating as they wore ancient clothing and set off (very loud) cannons. I paid five euros to get the fancy stamp in my passport (Adam mocked me endlessly). It was a great day!

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Like I said, I would TOTALLY do that stamp. Boys just don't understand ;-)

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Well. As they say. “ molise non esiste”. It’s a beautiful region. Very small. Everything I eat comes from this region. I’m moving to the Capitol city , campobasso. Tomorrow actually. Lol. It’s not Milan or Rome , and I wasn’t looking for that. I’m gonna see how the next year goes and take it from there. If you’re ever in the region, hit me up!!

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Thank you! That’s a deal.

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