Travel writer Matt Lakeman publishes dispatch from three days in San Marino
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The gist
Travel writer Matt Lakeman published "Notes on San Marino" after a three-day stay in the Italy-surrounded microstate.
The piece groups San Marino with Europe's other tiny, wealthy states.
Background
Matt Lakeman is a travel writer who spent three days in San Marino, a landlocked microstate completely surrounded by Italy whose people are called the "Sammarinese." He says he visited each of four European microstates — San Marino, Liechtenstein, Monaco and Andorra — for three days apiece to "maximally mine pleasant dullness" for material. The post is trending after being submitted to Hacker News, where it received 18 points and 2 comments.
How it unfolded
- Nov 5, 2026Matt Lakeman publishes "Notes on San Marino," a dispatch from a three-day stay in the microstate.
- Nov 5, 2026The IMF publishes the Staff Concluding Statement of its 2026 Article IV mission to San Marino.
- Nov 7, 2026The post is submitted to Hacker News, where it receives 18 points and 2 comments.
Key terms
- microstate
- A sovereign state with a very small population or land area, usually both.
- Hacker News
- A social news website focused on computer science and entrepreneurship, run by Y Combinator.
Source: Wikipedia
Who’s saying what
- Public
- Hacker News commenter EdwardDiego called the piece a "fascinating read, especially about how San Marino stayed independent."
- Official
- The IMF said in its 2026 Article IV concluding statement that San Marino's economic diversification efforts have helped it stay resilient to successive external shocks and maintain growth.
Still unverified
Lakeman says he doesn't think there are any official records of San Marino's ethnicity, but "presumably" the population is mostly Sammarinese and Italian.