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I decided that I'd like to have a look at a couple of "Micronations", and Italy has a number of these. San Marino and Vatican City are the famous ones, but there are are a couple of others.
The "Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes, and of Malta" or The Sovereign Military Order of Malta to give it it's shorter title. The SMOM is based in central Rome, and held Malta before being ejected by Napoleon in the 1700's. The organisation is now a medical charity and has observer status at the UN. The headquarters have the same sort of status as the Vatican and is not Italian soil.
The other Micronation I wanted to visit was Seborga, very close to the French border quite close to Monaco. Now this one isn't as clear cut as the SMOM. It was a principality, and then it got sold, but they didn't hand over the money, so it didn't technically make it into the unification of Italy.
However they do have a flag, coins, and people are happy to part of Seborga, so I think I can count it!
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