The first thing Annie and I did when we got to San Marino was head towards the first restaurant we saw, which happened to be a place called San Marino: Ristorante Italiano (I searched it up; apparently, ristorante means an Italian restaurant). I ordered some arancini, which are stuffed rice balls coated in breadcrumbs that are then fried. The one I ate had prosciutto, an Italian dry-cured ham, spinach, and fontina, a type of cheese, inside. It tasted delicious! Annie ordered something called Angel Hair Puttanesca, which turns out to be a famous Italian pasta dish. The waiter, when he served it to us, told us the dish was invented in the mid-20th century and included the ingredients typically used in Southern Italian cuisine: tomatoes, olives, olive oil, anchovies, capers, and garlic. I stole a bit of it from Annie, and found that it was quite delicious as well! Satisfied, we went to the hotel so we could leave our luggage, and start our excursion around San Marino properly.
Something that impressed me deeply as Annie and I toured San Marino was the language people around us spoke; Italian. Italian originated from Latin, and was created when the Roman Empire fell in 476 AD, and Latin became a language that only the intellectual class knew fluently, while the rest of the population only used it for daily needs. For this reason, several languages were born: Spanish, French, Romansh, Romanian, and lastly, Italian. Even though I didn't hear a lot of it, another language used in San Marino is Emiliano-Romagnolo. It's a language that is sometimes spoken here because San Marino borders on Emilia-Romagna, the place where Emiliano-Romagnolo is spoken the most. I think both languages sound beautiful.
Before the day ended, we checked out Dogana, a town in the north-eastern part of San Marino, and Palazzo Pubblico, the town hall and Official Government building of the City of San Marino. The government of San Marino is quite interesting. It has a representative democratic system going on, which means that they elect officials who represent a group of people. Originally, San Marino was led by a family called Arengo, then in the 13th century, power was handed over to the Great and General Council. In 1243, the first two Captains Regent were nominated. The Captains Regent are two heads of San Marino, and is re-elected every six months by the Great and General Council, usually from opposing parties. Politics is quite hard to understand, isn't it? Well, I'm going to write a postcard to my sister now, so she won't miss me that much. Ah, I also have to back up my things since Annie and I will start heading to Switzerland tomorrow.
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Current Captains Regent (Lorella Stefanelli and Nicola Renzi
meets ambassador Laurence Argimon-Pistre
image source: eeas.europa.eu |
Why was power handed to the Great and General Council? Was power handed over willingly or was it forced?
回覆刪除It was given to the council willingly in the 13th century.
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