And no, we’re not talking about Vatican City, but another microstate within Italy — the Republic of San Marino, the world’s fifth smallest country, also considered the oldest country in Europe.

OF ALL the countries in the world, San Marino is the fifth smallest but has a lot to boast about. Completely landlocked and surrounded by Italy, San Marino is the world's oldest surviving ...

With its crenelated walls and towers, San Marino perches on a mountaintop in northern Italy like some displaced relic of the Middle Ages. The world’s oldest and smallest (23 square miles ...