Tiny San Marino irks Italy with relaxed restaurant lockdown rules

San Marino is dominated by a fortress on top of a rocky crag

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The tiny republic of San Marino has provoked the ire of its neighbour Italy by allowing bars and restaurants to stay open until late, unlike those across the border.

Italian owners of restaurants and bars say the sharp divergence of rules between the two countries represents “unfair competition”.

Struggling to contain a sharp increase in Covid-19 infections, the Italian government this week decreed that all cafes, bars and restaurants must close at 6pm.

That has left tens of thousands of businesses out of pocket because they cannot offer their customers supper.

The town hall and Piazza della Liberta in the historic heart of San Marino

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Miniscule San Marino, in contrast, has issued no such decree and its trattorias and osterias are free to stay open until midnight.

That has lured Italians keen on enjoying an aperitivo or sit-down meal amid the stone towers and crenellated walls of the Ruritanian republic.

“San Marino is different to Italy. We have a relatively small number of bars and restaurants so it is easier to conduct health checks,” said Teodoro Lonfernini, the labour minister of the republic, which is entirely surrounded by Italian territory.

“To close bars, restaurants and pastry shops at 6pm is frankly absurd.”

Guaita tower, built in the 11th century, is the oldest of San Marino's three towers

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But hospitality businesses in the Italian seaside town of Rimini are not pleased and anticipate a flood of locals heading to San Marino this weekend.

“This is unfair competition,” said Jamil Sadegholvaad, a city councillor in charge of economic activity for Rimini.

“There are areas near the border where a restaurant on Italian soil has to close at 6pm and a restaurant 200 metres away, inside San Marino, remains open.”

There is a danger that Italians would travel to San Marino to take advantage of its more relaxed rules, catch coronavirus and spread the infection back home in Italy, he said.

San Marino, the third smallest state in Europe after the Vatican and Monaco, has recorded a total of 928 Covid-19 cases since the pandemic began. The country’s death toll stands at just 42.

San Marino claims to be the oldest republic in the world. According to legend, it was founded in AD 301 by a stonemason named Marinus.