Monte Titano

Where is Monte Titano?

Monte Titano is part of the Apennines.

You will find it in: San Marino.

Summit: 43.935° N, 12.450° E

The story behind it

Monte Titano is a long block of pale limestone standing up out of soft clay hills not far from the Adriatic coast, and because different surveys measure it slightly differently, the numbers on maps vary by a few metres. Three rocky points crown the ridge, and on each of them stands a tower, called Guaita, Cesta and Montale, linked by a cliff path that people know as the Witches' Passage. The rock holds shells from an ancient sea floor, since the limestone formed under water long before it was pushed up into its place. The small state of San Marino grew up here on the ridge behind its walls, and today stairways, lifts and narrow lanes climb between the towers. From the ramparts on a clear day the whole plain and the shining sea lie spread out below.

Find it on the globe

Monte Titano is there as a small peak with its own shape — a horn, a ridge, a volcano — standing on the surface. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.

It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.