Republic of San Marino

San Marino (サンマリノ San Marino ) is a fan-made character in the series Hetalia: Axis Powers. She is the representation of the enclaved microstate surrounded by Italy, San Marino. She received the name Sofia Marinus  ( ソピア  マリヌス Sopia Marinusu ).

Appearance
San Marino is a small, short girl (who is said to be even shorter than Liechtenstein albeit still taller than Monaco and Vatican City in the European group) that resembles both Veneziano and Romano; she has dark brown hair and amber eyes, with a curved and bent curl to the right side of her head, represeting the three towers, Guaita, Cesta and Montale. Her skin tone is more similar to Veneziano's fair complexion than Romano's olive, since she is closer to the north than the south. She likes to dress formally and lady-like, often depicted in a purple dress with a chalk-white bow-tie around the golden-rimmed collars, purple leggings and beige Mary Jane shoes. Her hair is partly tied back into a high ponytail with a magenta cyclamen flower hairtie, which is San Marino's national flower, the ponytail represents the Ausa River. A golden, rectangle barette with the three towers of San Marino crafted on it clasped on the left side of her hair, this is her most prized possesion, the first thing she's ever made for herself when poverty had finally left her country and her people.

She's also very fit and healthy, due to thousands of years of everyday's work-out with steps-climbing. She has better endurance than the Italy brothers - not anywhere near as strong as them though.

Personality and Interests
San Marino is a pleasant, kind ( being called as a very good neighbour and being an asylum for persecution and despotism even when she's still very young and not even a country  ), polite, calm-headed and old-fashioned girl who enjoys her own wealth. She is by no mean shy, introverted and reserved ( holding diplomatic and bilateral relations with more than 170+ other nations ). Although she is still very forgetful and tiny in population, in her old days she's shown to be very fiesty as she declared wars on several countries (in which she promptly just forgot about it right after that). For a country so small and defenseless in the past, she has an incredible luck and charm that helps her gain the alliance and respect of many countries and historical figures that were willing to protect her during the war timeline when her close neighbours are clashing with each other, but instead she remained neutral and simply welcomed refugees from many different countries, the number of people which grew to be three times her original population at the time. Additional to that, she has a charming habit of collecting compliments. Her past is also quite mysterious as there are a lot of myths and legends in her history, none of which are officially confirmed.

She gets insecure about her height and cares a lot about her people, she tries her best to create bonds with as other bigger nations, especially with the Italy brothers since she relies so much on them and her national defense lies in their hands. She also has her ups and downs in her emotions, when no one was looking or when the tourists at her place has disperced after sun down, she has a really sombre air around her as the problems and memories came back to her.

She enjoys cooking and festivals, her favorite and most popular festival is the ‘Medieval Days’ during the last weekend of July, in which her people turn back the hand of the clock and transform the historical city into a true medieval village. She also enjoys making stamps (which are really pretty!), making white wine, cheap booze, olive oil and cheese - some of her speciality. She is very skilled at handiworks, but is also quite a tomboy who loves constructing and buildings.

She loves the 'San Marino Adventures', a popular adventure park of San Marino, where she often takes her guests to and laughs at them when they have trouble getting out of tangled nets (especially the Italy brothers since they are her most frequent guests). She has a rather questionable fascination for Hello Kitty (products with the design are literally scattered around her house) and a strange habit of harvesting agretto while she hikes (to make L'Agretti, a dish she also likes to make at home). She also has a fondness for all things military.

Italy
Main Article: Italy  

Although she is being taken care by Italy and rely a lot on him, San Marino is more of a sisterly figure to Italy than he is to her and cares a lot for him, although this is sometimes questioned when others saw a seemingly young girl patting on Italy's head or comforting him. Italy himself sees her as a big sister to heart and doesn't really care that she's a lot shorter than him. She also adores Italy's food and often imports them into her own country.

He is a tad bit overprotective over her as he agrees with Romano to 'check for danger' in the goods imported from a third-party country to her, but not as much as Romano's own protectiveness; they also takes care of most of her relationships with other nations. San Marino is often seen surrounded by Romano and him when they're together.

Even Benito Mussolini had a soft spot for her, having called her his Repubblica Italianissima means truly-Italian Republic and giving her a rail road track in the early 1930's.

During WWI, they weren't close despite the fact that she was his relative and very close neighbour. Italy used to be quite hostile towards San Marino's neutrality as he think she might somehow betray them when they declared war on Austro-Hungary. During the Italian Risorgimento, however, was the key event in which they became closer together after she helped Italy and Giuseppe Garibaldi hide from Austria, one of the reason why she gets all the frienship and cooperation treaty from him and manages to keep her independence until today.

Italy often visits her home right next to his, crossing her border without having to do anything ( since there's no formal border between them, it's seamless! ) And because of him and Romano, she (who has custom unions with them) has the privilege of enjoying all the benefits that flows from EU's membership.

Lately, she's been increasingly concerned by the fact that his army sometimes went over to her border, claiming that it is only a mistake. She brushed it off, but that didn't stop her from being concerned over her independence. Having been recently harrassed by his people economically, she seems to be very annoyed with the Italy once in a while, their relationship is not as good as in the past. She also said that she could not understand Italy as well as in the past. However, she still does her best to normalize her relationship with Italy.

South Italy (Romano)
Main Article: South Italy

Romano, in contrast of Italy, is often being seen scolding San Marino or helping out and keeping an eye on ( a.k.a 'babysitting' ) San Marino as she is forgetful most of the time. San Marino however gets dissappointed that she's 'being such a child' to him even though she's the older one'. She is often surrounded by him and Italy when the three of them are together. Even more so than Italy, they very very rarely interact due to him being under Spain's rule. She however, did get to see and talked to him, which was a reason why he warmed up her very quickly (additionally to the fact that he is naturally sweeter and friendlier to girls and that she's his relative).

She tries to aid him whenever she can. Romano appears to be calmer and more mature with how he acts when he's with her, still San Marino still has to soothe him every time he has his fits.

America
Main Article: America

San Marino and America are on good terms. In the past, when America was in one of his darkest moment, the civil war which threatened the viability of him being a democratic republic, San Marino sent a letter to him which caught his attention. President Abraham Lincoln was made an honorable citizen of San Marino as they are both republics - an endangered 'species' during the time and managed to raise America's spirit. Their bosses are said to be on excellent terms with each other.

In the early of 1942, she reiterated that she was not at war with him, a position that was informed to America by his State Department.

France
Main Article: France  

They used to be quite closed, like an older brother to her, due to the fact that France's boss during the French Revolution, Napoleon I is friend with one of her Regent Captain, Antonio Onofri. He promised to guarantee and protect her independence, even offering to expand her territory but the offer was declined when she thought it would only cause her revenge and trouble brought from other countries in the future (which proved to be a right choice in the future). They are not so close now, but France is always a friend (and secretly ally at heart) to San Marino. Moreover, Napoleon I of France was also a father-figure to San Marino - she always hung around him whenever he visited her. He also intervened and is the reason why she didn't get invaded by Austria after she helped Garibaldi escape, even though he was also in the search-for-Italy party.

Antonio Onofri
Main Article: Antonio Onofri 

<p style="text-align:justify;">San Marino and her people called him 'Father of the Country'. The 'rebirth' of San Marino during the difficult period has been attributed to him, who befriended with Napoleon I and helped her get through the French Revolution without harm. She is seen smiling sadly and placing cyclamens on his grave.

Germany
Main Article: Germany

Germany finds it surprising that a seemingly little girl can be older than both him and Italy, but respects her. He once briefly stayed in her country, but was driven out by the Allied Forces in the Battle of San Marino, which later got her into one of her few angry moments and went to declare war on him for 25 years during WWII, tossing asides her neutrality to join the Allies (although, they didn't do anything much about it). Their relationship is not the most friendly one out there, but before the war declaration, she welcomed his Jewish citizens to her home, risking angering his boss but still managed to stay neutral; they do not talk to each other unless it's really neccesary now.

England
Main Article: England

England still has a sour behaviour towards her due to the fastest goal scored by San Marino's team during World Cup qualifier on 17 November 1993, embarrassing and shocking him. However, she saw him as a potential football coach, always looking at him with hopeful eyes when she sees him play and writes it as one of her 'Top 10 Things I Wanted'. Asides from that, diplomatically, she's in good terms with England. Even though she looks up to him, they bicker quite often.

She used to declare a war on him, but after being questioned, she denied the fact and said that it was all just a misunderstanding; they switched sides after that and turned to declare war on Germany. England is the only person that has ever hurt her by bombing her country.

Liechtenstein
Main Article: Liechtenstein

When they first met, Liechtenstein thought San Marino was a little girl lost in the streets during the trip for the meeting between their bosses. After they found the Italy brothers, she was quite shocked when she found out that San Marino is actually even older than her brother. They are friendly to each other, but apparently, the two girls are very competitive in football.

Austria
Main Article: Austria

In 1915, she cheer​fully declared war on Austria (along with Hungary) but never turning up on the battlefield. Additionally, the former one treated the latter with suspicion during WWII and during the time when Garibaldi Giuseppe and Italy came to take asylum at her home, who she was helping during that time. He was angered by this fact and was about to invade her, threatening her independence if not for the help of France and Napoleon III. Nowadays, their relationship is not as negative as before, she's very snarky when it comes to him, although all her remarks are always harmless and light-hearted.

Russia
Main Article: Russia

After WWII, when her country had both the Communist and Socialist Parties during the Cold War, Russia and her strengthened their relationship. Nowadays, Russia comes to visit her quite often, many of his people also came to her home. She even has a memorial statue of the Beslan victims in his country. San Marino thought Russia was nice, while the other nations tried to convince her otherwise.

Sweden
Main Article: Sweden

Italy told the other Axis about a legend of a war between Sweden and San Marino when the two latters are talking to each other. This shocked Germany and Japan when it was told that the war is said to not have ended even until now and the fact that a nation her size would really waged war with Sweden, a rather 'large' country. However, France came by and told them that it was completely false, saying that it was only an amusing popular myth because the timeline of the war was supposed to be during the French Revolution and he must have heard of it when there's war between San Marino and someone else (since she was under his protection at that time).

Ancient Rome
Main Article: Ancient Rome

She was one of Rome's young relatives, living with him before she was founded by her 'father' - Saint Marinus. Her memory of him was very very vague and not many, since she was still very small at the time and Rome was more focus on her cousin - Italy than his other relatives. She detached herself completely from him and started a new life with a small community of people, determined to become independent and a recognized nation to gain the respect of other nations and people alike. If anything, she might hold a bit of dislike for Ancient Rome due to the influences from Saint Marinus - who had to escape the Christian persecution in Rome around that time.

She used to have the last name 'Vargas' before officially adopting her current last name'' 'Marinus'. ''

Trivia

 * Due to her relations to Ancient Rome, she is basically a distant cousin to Italy and Romano.
 * Her curl is not an e-zone, it simply represents the Three Towers of San Marino; the angled shape of her curl represents the country's extremely mountainous terrain. But if someone tugs it, especially while holding the tip of her curl, she will get very upset (because the tip was supposed to be the Montale tower, which is not opened for people to come and see unlike the two others).
 * She is the self-proclaimed oldest republic in the world. But the fact that not everyone knows that she's also the first republic too.
 * She's very very old and has been around since the Neolithic Age ( human traces in the territory of San Marino ) and so on, but she's only officially found by her 'father' since 301. If for real, she's about 7000+ age. Before her 'birthday', she had little memory of the past.
 * They say that San Marino has a sort of traffic of weapons like guns, as the laws about weapons are different from Italy's and it is the most unrestricted gun law in the whole Europe,so the Italy brothers go there also for that reason...Air guns and medieval weapons (especially crossbows) are also things that San Marino absolutely love. In the Historic Center, there are plenty of <span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif;line-height:18px;">military and arms-ccentric stores. Anyone can buy a sub machine gun or any other light duty weapon. Her nickname by the Italians is 'The Country of Softair'.
 * San Marino drinks tap-wine and bottled-water. Instead of drinking wine from a glass, she just put the whole thing in a jar and drink it.
 * She is one of the first nations to issue Disney stamps!
 * Her people have one of the highest live expectancy, along with Japan and Switzerland. Together, they place 1st.
 * Some stamp collectors said that the country solely exists to sell stamps to collectors. This is...somewhat true 50 years ago but today her philatelic programme is devoid of excesses and of very limited importance to the nation's economy. She still enjoys designing stamps though.
 * She royally sucks at sports, especially soccer in which she has one of the worst football team in the world. Despite that, she still takes pride in her ability to play soccer and is proud of her national team. She also has her moments of glory ( especially the famed fastest goal at 8.3 sec against one of world's giants, England ). Although, she is quite good at baseball and enjoys (mostly watching) racing immensely.
 * San Marino was only at the height of a 8-year-old child up until 1463, where she entered an alliance against Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, Lord of Rimini who was later defeated. She grew after that ( a result after Pope Pius II gave the country castles and the towns of Fiorentino, Montergiardino and Serravalle). Later that year she grew to her current height and has not grown since then (after the town of Faetano joined the republic on its own accord).
 * She's very good at music and knows to play a lot of instruments (a reference to the Love Orchestra of San Marino) and has a beautiful singing voice. Her music industry is also very successful.

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Character created by cookiekrio on deviantART