Nation on Top of a Hill: San Marino

Originally established as a refuge from Diocletian’s persecution of Christians in 301, today San Marino is the world’s smallest republic with only 30,000 people.  It is totally surrounded by Italy in its remote mountain three-peak stronghold.  It has the world’s oldest constitution.  Access is from the Italian city of Rimini.  Italian is the language; Euro is the currency; calling code is +378. 

And yes, there's a hostel here, too.  There will probably be more by the time you get there.  Things are happening that fast.  Life is just one big camp-out.    

THE SECOND-TALLEST BUILDING IN THE WORLD (is more than twice as high as Mount Obama)

Being number two is not much better than coming in last.  How many people know that the second-tallest mountain in the world is the dismally-named “K-2?”  Quite a few, no doubt, but everybody, literally everybody, knows that Mount Everest is the tallest.  But do you know what the tallest building in the world is?  If you don’t, then you should, because it’s something truly incredible.  It’s called “Burj-Khalifa,” it’s in Dubai, UAE, and at 2717ft/828mt, is more than twice as tall as the Empire State Building, for years the world’s tallest, and to this day, still the second-highest in the US; more than twice that height, one hundred sixty-three stories.  That’s hard to imagine until you see it, pointing like a dagger up into the sky, with its serrated edge silhouetted against the horizon.  It’s ungodly… but hardly surprising in a country that has four of the tallest buildings in the top twenty.  And yes, they compete, they really do.