← For Teachers
🌍 Country of the Week · A Spin the Globe Teacher's Guide
San Marino
San MarinoEurope · This week's dish comes from City of San Marino
About San Marino
San Marino calls itself the world's oldest republic, dating itself to 301 AD, though that date was only fixed by decree in 1941 and historians put its actual institutions in the 13th century. The tiny mountain republic within Italy cooks Emilia-Romagna-style, filled pasta, roasts, and the layered dessert torta tre monti. Piadina flatbread and Italian tradition define its table.
Sammarinese cooking is Romagna to the north and Marche to the south. The local piadina is defined against its neighbours: flour, water, lard and salt, cooked on a terracotta testo, and thicker than the Rimini version but not as tall as the Cesena one. Piadina Romagnola across the border holds an EU protected geographical indication, registered in 2014.
Torta Tre Monti is a post-war invention rather than an old recipe: layers of crisp wafer with cocoa and hazelnut cream, coated in dark chocolate, shaped in three rises for the three peaks of Monte Titano. The mountain and the historic centre on it are a UNESCO World Heritage site, listed for seven hundred years of continuous republican government.
The wider picture: Village recipes guarded for generations.
This week's dish: Piadina
A thin griddled flatbread folded around soft cheese with ham, or with jam, the daily bread of the region.
Serves 4 · Prep 20 min · Cook 15 min · Difficulty: easy
See the full recipe: ingredients, steps and dietary swaps →
Grown-up jobs: any step that uses a hot stove, oven, boiling water, or a sharp knife is for a teacher or parent. Children can measure, mix, and assemble.
Discussion prompts
1. Find San Marino on a world map or globe. It sits in Europe. Which oceans or neighboring countries does it touch, and roughly how far is it from where you live?
2. Piadina comes from City of San Marino, in San Marino. Read its ingredient list together. Which of those foods do you think are grown or raised nearby, and how might the country's climate and landscape explain that?
3. Read the short story behind Piadina. How have the people, trade routes, and history of San Marino shaped what ends up on the plate there?
4. Compare Piadina to a dish your own family cooks. What is similar, what is different, and what one question would you ask a family in San Marino about how they make and share it?
5. After you cook Piadina, add San Marino to a classroom map and give it a stamp. Write down one fact about its food or geography that you did not know this morning.
🌍 Spin the Globe · Geography through food · spintheglobeofficial.com/for-teachers