Tucked inside the Italian peninsula are two of the world's most peculiar sovereign states. The Republic of San Marino, by its own claim the oldest continuously surviving sovereign state on earth — founded in 301, governed by two rotating heads of state — is enclaved entirely within Italy. The Vatican City State is the smallest internationally-recognised country in the world (~800 residents) and is the seat of the Roman Catholic Church. Both speak Italian; both use the euro; both sit physically inside Italy without being part of it.
For an Italian learner, these two states are interesting not because their language differs from standard Italian — it largely doesn't — but because they show how the modern Italian state coexists with surviving fragments of a much older European political landscape.
San Marino: the world's oldest republic
The Repubblica di San Marino is a landlocked microstate of about 33,000 inhabitants, on Mount Titano on the eastern flank of the Apennines. It is enclaved within Italy, surrounded by Emilia-Romagna and Marche. The capital is the City of San Marino, perched on a mountain ridge.
San Marino è una piccola repubblica di circa trentatremila abitanti, completamente circondata dall'Italia.
San Marino is a small republic of about thirty-three thousand inhabitants, completely surrounded by Italy.
La Città di San Marino sorge in cima al Monte Titano.
The City of San Marino rises on top of Mount Titano.
A Roman stonemason and a 1,700-year-old story
The traditional founding date is 3 September 301, when, according to legend, a Christian stonemason named Marinus fled persecution under the emperor Diocletian and established a small monastic community on Mount Titano. The community survived through the Middle Ages by virtue of its inaccessibility and its diplomatic skill — successive popes, emperors, and Italian princes were persuaded, paid off, or outflanked. At Italian unification, San Marino negotiated with Camillo Cavour to remain independent in exchange for granting safe passage to refugees fleeing the wars of unification.
Whether the 301 date is historically accurate is disputed; the continuous existence of the polity is documented from at least the 9th century. Either way, San Marino is older than Spain (1492) and older than England as a unified kingdom (1066).
La leggenda fa risalire la fondazione di San Marino al 301 dopo Cristo.
Legend traces the founding of San Marino to the year 301 AD.
Two Captains, six months at a time
San Marino is governed by two co-equal heads of state called Captains Regent (Capitani Reggenti), who serve a fixed term of six months, from 1 April to 1 October and from 1 October to 1 April. The institution has functioned without interruption since at least the late 13th century — the longest-running republican constitutional arrangement in the world.
The Captains Regent are elected by the Grand and General Council (Consiglio Grande e Generale), the Sammarinese parliament. They preside jointly, neither has authority over the other, and they share executive functions. The system was deliberately designed to prevent the concentration of power.
I Capitani Reggenti restano in carica per sei mesi e governano insieme.
The Captains Regent stay in office for six months and govern jointly.
Ogni primo aprile e ogni primo ottobre due nuovi Capitani Reggenti entrano in carica a San Marino.
On every 1 April and 1 October, two new Captains Regent take office in San Marino.
The Sammarinese variety
The official language is Italian. The local vernacular is Sammarinese (sammarinese), essentially a variety of Romagnol (romagnolo) — the Gallo-Italic language of neighbouring Emilia-Romagna, with minor local features. A speaker from Rimini or Forlì understands Sammarinese with no difficulty; a speaker from Milan or Naples does not, without exposure.
In practice almost everyone in San Marino speaks standard Italian for any context outside the family. The Romagnol-flavoured local variety survives mostly among older speakers and in informal moments — the pattern is identical to the rest of northern Italy.
A San Marino si parla l'italiano standard, ma in famiglia si sente ancora il dialetto romagnolo.
In San Marino people speak standard Italian, but at home you can still hear the Romagnol dialect.
Currency, EU status, and the euro paradox
San Marino is not a member of the European Union, but it has signed a monetary agreement with the EU that allows it to use the euro as its official currency and to mint its own commemorative euro coins. The same arrangement applies to the Vatican, Andorra, and Monaco. The euro circulates as legal tender, but the country does not participate in EU institutions, has its own immigration rules, and applies a distinctive (and historically lighter) tax regime.
San Marino non fa parte dell'Unione Europea, ma usa l'euro come moneta ufficiale.
San Marino is not part of the European Union, but it uses the euro as its official currency.
Vatican City: the smallest state in the world
The Stato della Città del Vaticano is the territorial seat of the Holy See (Santa Sede), the central government of the Roman Catholic Church. It occupies roughly 0.49 square kilometres in the heart of Rome — about half the size of New York's Central Park — and has roughly 800 residents, almost all of them clergy, Swiss Guards, and their families. It is the smallest sovereign state in the world.
La Città del Vaticano è il più piccolo Stato sovrano del mondo, con meno di mille abitanti.
Vatican City is the smallest sovereign state in the world, with fewer than a thousand inhabitants.
Il Vaticano si trova interamente all'interno della città di Roma.
The Vatican is located entirely within the city of Rome.
A 1929 settlement of an old quarrel
The modern Vatican City State was established by the Lateran Treaty of 1929, signed between the Holy See and the Italian state under Mussolini. The treaty resolved the questione romana — the dispute over papal sovereignty that had lasted since 1870, when the newly unified Italian state seized Rome from the Papal States. Between 1870 and 1929, successive popes had refused to leave the Vatican as a protest, declaring themselves "prisoners in the Vatican" (prigionieri in Vaticano). The 1929 treaty gave the Pope sovereignty over the Vatican territory and established the legal status of the Holy See. The pope is the head of state, governing through the Roman Curia.
I Patti Lateranensi del 1929 risolsero la questione romana e crearono lo Stato della Città del Vaticano.
The Lateran Treaty of 1929 resolved the Roman question and created the Vatican City State.
Two languages, two functions
The Vatican has a peculiar linguistic arrangement that distinguishes it from every other Italian-speaking state.
- Italiano is the administrative working language. The everyday business of the Vatican — the Curia, the Vatican City government, the Swiss Guards, the post office, the museums — is conducted in Italian. When the Pope speaks publicly, he speaks primarily in Italian.
- Latinum (Latin) is the liturgical and juridical language of the Holy See. Encyclicals, the Code of Canon Law, official decrees of the Curia, and the most solemn ceremonies are formally promulgated in Latin. The Vatican also maintains the world's only ATM with Latin instructions ("Inserito scidulam quaeso ut faciundam cognoscas rationem" — "Insert your card so we can know which transaction to perform").
In Vaticano si lavora in italiano, ma le encicliche e gli atti ufficiali sono in latino.
In the Vatican people work in Italian, but encyclicals and official acts are in Latin.
Il latino resta la lingua giuridica e liturgica della Santa Sede.
Latin remains the juridical and liturgical language of the Holy See.
For diplomatic relations, the Holy See traditionally uses French (the historical language of European diplomacy), though Italian and English are also routinely employed.
Papal Italian: a register of its own
The Italian used by the Pope, the Curia, and the Vatican press office has its own register — Papal Italian (italiano pontificio). Its features:
- Latinate vocabulary: adempire rather than fare, promulgare rather than pubblicare.
- Highly formal syntax — long periodic sentences, abundant subordination, frequent subjunctive in indirect speech.
- Archaic forms in liturgy: forms of address such as Vostra Santità (Your Holiness) and pronouns and verb agreements that have largely vanished from secular Italian.
- Theological technical vocabulary — magistero (the Church's teaching office), concistoro, enciclica, sinodo, bolla (papal bull) — much of it directly from ecclesiastical Latin.
Il magistero della Chiesa si esprime soprattutto attraverso le encicliche papali.
The teaching office of the Church expresses itself mainly through papal encyclicals.
Sua Santità ha rivolto un saluto particolare ai fedeli giunti da tutto il mondo.
His Holiness extended a special greeting to the faithful who had come from all over the world.
This register is not difficult for an educated Italian to follow, but it is markedly more formal and Latinate than ordinary written Italian. Learners who want to read Vatican documents (encyclicals, papal speeches, the Catechism) will find a slower, more formal Italian than the journalism they may be used to.
Currency and other arrangements
Like San Marino, the Vatican uses the euro under a monetary agreement with the EU. It mints its own euro coins, which feature the reigning pope and are exceptionally rare in regular circulation. The Vatican has its own postal service, often considered more reliable than the Italian one — packages with Vatican postmarks reach destinations across the world more quickly than equivalents stamped at Poste Italiane.
Il Vaticano ha la sua moneta, i suoi francobolli e perfino il proprio servizio postale.
The Vatican has its own currency, its own stamps, and even its own postal service.
Comparing the two microstates
| Feature | San Marino | Vatican City |
|---|---|---|
| Population | ~33,000 | ~800 |
| Area | 61 km² | 0.49 km² |
| Founded | 301 (legend) | 1929 (modern state) |
| Head of state | Two Captains Regent (6 months) | The Pope (life term) |
| Official languages | Italian | Italian (working) + Latin (juridical) |
| Currency / EU | Euro / not EU | Euro / not EU |
| Local flavour | Romagnol-influenced (sammarinese) | Roman Italian + Latin register |
Common Mistakes
❌ San Marino fa parte dell'Italia.
Wrong — San Marino is a sovereign state, completely independent from Italy. It is enclaved within Italy but not part of it.
✅ San Marino è uno Stato sovrano circondato dall'Italia, non parte di essa.
San Marino is a sovereign state surrounded by Italy, not part of it.
❌ La lingua ufficiale del Vaticano è il latino.
Misleading — Latin is the juridical and liturgical language of the Holy See, but Italian is the administrative working language used in daily Vatican life.
✅ La lingua di lavoro del Vaticano è l'italiano; il latino resta la lingua giuridica della Santa Sede.
The working language of the Vatican is Italian; Latin remains the juridical language of the Holy See.
❌ Il Vaticano usa la lira italiana.
Wrong — the Vatican adopted the euro in 2002, like Italy and like San Marino, by virtue of monetary agreements with the EU.
✅ Il Vaticano usa l'euro grazie a un accordo monetario con l'Unione Europea.
The Vatican uses the euro thanks to a monetary agreement with the European Union.
❌ A San Marino c'è un solo presidente.
Wrong — San Marino has two co-equal heads of state, the Captains Regent, who rotate every six months.
✅ A San Marino ci sono due Capitani Reggenti, che restano in carica sei mesi.
In San Marino there are two Captains Regent, who stay in office for six months.
❌ San Marino è membro dell'Unione Europea.
Wrong — San Marino is not a member of the EU, although it uses the euro under a monetary agreement.
✅ San Marino non è membro dell'UE, ma ha un accordo monetario che le permette di usare l'euro.
San Marino is not a member of the EU, but it has a monetary agreement that allows it to use the euro.
Key takeaways
San Marino claims to be the world's oldest surviving sovereign state, founded by legend in 301 CE. It is governed by two Capitani Reggenti who rotate every six months — uninterrupted since the late 13th century.
The Vatican City is the smallest sovereign state in the world (~800 residents) and the seat of the Holy See, established in its modern form by the Lateran Treaty of 1929.
Both states use Italian as their working language and the euro without being EU members.
The Vatican uniquely maintains Latin as its juridical and liturgical language: encyclicals and canon law are formally promulgated in Latin, while everyday Vatican administration runs in Italian.
Sammarinese has a Romagnol-flavoured local speech; Papal Italian forms a distinct formal register with Latinate vocabulary, archaic forms, and theological technical terminology.
For the broader Italian-speaking world, see the overview and Italy itself.
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