San Marino is its own microstate landlocked in the north-central part of Italy. San Marino is also very hilly and features plain, white license plates with a slight blue tinge. San Marino has many license plates that are white with a slight blue tinge, as pictured. These plates lack the blue vertical stripe of Europe. A number of Italian license plates can also be seen in San Marino. One of the best ways to identify San Marino and tell it apart from Italy is to look for these pedestrian crossings that feature blue and white markings on the road and often a middle metal pole splitting into two. Italy only rarely have these crossings and if they do, they lack the unique pole splitting into two that holds the pedestrian crossing signs. The San Marino landscape feels colder and less Mediterranean than much of Italy. It is also very hilly. The chevron in San Marino feature yellow backgrounds and red arrows. This contrasts the black and white chevron of Italy. San Marino has a large number of these light-green coloured bins. Bins in San Marino often have a waves logo on them, like the green and blue waves on the bin pictured above. Somewhere on the rear of around 10% of cars in San Marino will be a white oval sticker containing the letters RSM standing for Repubblica di San Marino. In most instance the letters will be blurred and you will just see a white oval. 

The 739m-tall Monte Titano dominates the surrounding landscape and is visible from almost every point in the Republic.

Look for the three towers to safely identify it.

Sammarinese licence plates are short, white and have blue lettering on them.

Other European countries will typically have longer licence plates, often with one or more blue strips.

Road signs, poles and bollards are generally identical to the ones used in Italy.

Many road signs give directions to the nearby Italian city of Rimini.

San Marino is a hilly country, with many small winding roads.

San Marino is the only country in the world to use yellow chevrons with burgundy red arrows.

These elaborate pedestrian crossings, with painted blue crosswalks and hanging signs, are specific to San Marino.

Lime-green bins are particularly common in San Marino.
