Europe's microstates: how to tell them apart
Six of the smallest places in Europe share this guide. Vatican City and Monaco are both smaller than New York's Central Park, and even the largest of the six, Andorra, is less than 40 kilometres across. Because they are so small, each one borrows a lot from the bigger countries around it: similar road signs, similar houses and the same kinds of plants. Traffic keeps to the right in all six.
The quickest way to tell them apart is to combine the language on the signs with what surrounds you. Catalan in a deep mountain valley means Andorra. German on a flat valley floor, with the Alps rising behind, points to Liechtenstein. French on a crowded, steep shoreline packed with tower blocks and yachts suggests Monaco. Italian can go two ways: a rocky hilltop with medieval towers and farmland below is San Marino, while giant stone columns and a huge dome in the middle of a big city mean Vatican City. English signs, with a towering grey limestone rock above you and sea on three sides, mean Gibraltar.
The hardest part is usually not choosing between the six, but ruling out the big neighbour next door: France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland or Austria. Flags help a lot here. Each microstate has its own, and they often fly from public buildings, balconies and lamp posts.
At a glance
| Place | Drives on | Languages | Landscape |
|---|---|---|---|
| Andorra | the right | Catalan, Spanish and French | Catalan signs in steep Pyrenees valleys |
| Liechtenstein | the right | German | German signs, Rhine valley and Alpine slopes |
| Monaco | the right | French, Italian and Monégasque | Dense towers and yachts on the Riviera |
| San Marino | the right | Italian | Italian signs and a hilltop with three towers |
| Vatican City | the right | Italian and Latin | Giant columns and a dome inside Rome |
| Gibraltar | the right | English and Spanish | English signs below a giant limestone rock |
Andorra
Andorra sits high in the eastern Pyrenees, between France and Spain. Almost the whole country is steep mountainside, so towns and roads crowd into a few narrow valleys. Catalan signs, stone buildings with dark slate roofs and a busy valley road lined with shops, with ski slopes above, all point here.
Language and signs
Catalan is the official language, though Spanish, French and Portuguese are common too. Look for accents such as à and ò, the letter ç and the dotted double l in "col·legi" (school). Sign words include "carrer" (street), "plaça" (square), "sortida" (exit) and "aparcament" (car park).
Roads
Traffic drives on the right. Main roads are labelled CG, for "carretera general", plus a number, and smaller ones CS. One main road climbs from the Spanish border to the capital, and another crosses a high pass towards France. Expect tunnels, hairpin bends and heavy traffic in the central valley.
Landscape and towns
Mountains fill every view. Even the lowest point is more than 800 metres above sea level, and the peaks reach nearly 3,000 metres. Pine and fir forest covers the lower slopes, with meadows and old stone terraces near the villages and bare rock higher up. Winters bring deep snow.
Andorra la Vella and Escaldes-Engordany have merged into one long strip of shops, hotels and apartment blocks along the valley floor. Even new buildings are often faced with grey stone and roofed with dark slate, with wooden balconies. Higher villages have small stone churches with square bell towers, some nearly a thousand years old.
Easily confused with
- Spain: The Spanish Pyrenees, especially in Catalonia, can have Catalan signs and stone villages too. But Spanish road numbers look different, such as N-260 or C-14, and Spanish mountain towns are rarely as crammed with shops.
- France: The French Pyrenees share the mountains, but signs there are in French. Catalan words like "carrer" and the dotted "l·l" never appear on French signs.
Did you know? Andorra la Vella is the highest capital city in Europe, at roughly 1,000 metres above sea level. Andorra has no airport and no railway, so almost every visitor arrives by road.
Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein is a narrow strip of land between Switzerland and Austria, only about 25 kilometres long. Its western edge follows the River Rhine across a flat, farmed valley, and from there the land climbs steeply into the Alps. German signs, neat villages that run into one another and a castle above the capital, Vaduz, are the things to look for.
Borders: Austria and Switzerland
Language and signs
German is the official language, and people chat in a local Alemannic dialect. As in Switzerland, the letter ß isn't used, so you'll read "Strasse" (street) rather than "Straße". Other handy words are "Gasse" (lane), "Zentrum" (centre) and "Kirche" (church).
Roads
Traffic drives on the right. There are no motorways: the main road runs along the valley from village to village, while narrower roads zigzag up to places such as Triesenberg and the ski village of Malbun. Signs and markings look very much like Switzerland's.
Landscape and towns
The valley floor is flat, with maize fields, meadows, orchards and lines of trees along the Rhine embankments. Above it, forested slopes rise sharply to Alpine pastures and rocky peaks over 2,500 metres. Vineyards grow on sunny slopes around Vaduz, and a warm, dry wind called the Föhn sometimes blows down from the mountains.
Villages are tidy, with white or pastel houses, wooden balconies, flower boxes and tall, pointed church spires. Vaduz has a small pedestrian centre with modern museums, overlooked by Vaduz Castle, home of the princely family. Modern homes, small factories and offices fill the gaps between villages.
Easily confused with
- Switzerland: The Swiss side of the Rhine looks almost identical. Look for Liechtenstein's blue-and-red flag with a gold crown instead of the Swiss white cross on red. A motorway along the valley means you're probably in Switzerland.
- Austria: Austria's Vorarlberg, to the north and east, has similar villages and mountains. Austrian signs do use ß, so a "Straße" points to Austria, and Austrian flags are red, white and red.
Did you know? Liechtenstein is one of only two countries that are doubly landlocked: none of its neighbours has a coastline either. The other is Uzbekistan.
Monaco
Monaco is a tiny, crowded stretch of the French Riviera, wedged between the mountains and the Mediterranean Sea. There's no countryside at all, just tall apartment blocks, hotels, marinas full of yachts and roads winding down steep slopes. French signs, red-and-white flags and the sheer density of buildings give it away.
Borders: France
Language and signs
French is the official language, so signs say "rue" (street), "boulevard", "sortie" (exit) and "parking". Monaco also has its own traditional language, Monégasque, related to the dialect of Genoa in Italy, and some street signs in the old town show it beside French.
Roads
Traffic drives on the right, and signs and markings look much like France's. The land is so steep and cramped that roads twist through hairpins and tunnels, and many streets are one-way. Public lifts and escalators carry people between the different levels of the town.
Landscape and towns
Monaco rises from the sea up rocky slopes towards the mountains behind it. The plants are classic Mediterranean: palm trees, umbrella pines, cacti, agaves and bright bougainvillea spilling over walls. Summers are hot and dry. One district, Fontvieille, was built on land reclaimed from the sea.
The whole country is one continuous town. Older buildings are painted cream, ochre, pink and peach, with green or brown shutters, while glass-and-concrete towers crowd in between. The old town stands on a rocky headland called the Rock, home to the Prince's Palace.
Easily confused with
- France: Neighbouring French towns such as Beausoleil and Cap-d'Ail look very similar, and the border can be a single street. French roads carry numbers like D6007, and French flags are blue, white and red.
- Italy: The Italian Riviera, a short drive east, has the same colourful buildings on steep coasts, but its signs are in Italian, with "via" for street and "uscita" for exit.
Did you know? Every year, Formula One racing cars speed through Monaco's ordinary streets, and even a tunnel, during the Monaco Grand Prix. Monaco's flag is red over white, almost the same as Indonesia's. The main difference is its shape: Monaco's flag is a little less wide.
San Marino
San Marino is completely surrounded by Italy, a short drive inland from the beaches of Rimini on the Adriatic coast. Its old capital perches on the cliffs of Monte Titano, crowned by three stone towers, while the rest of the country is rolling farmland and busy small towns. Italian signs plus blue-and-white flags mean you're here.
Borders: Italy
Language and signs
Italian is the official language, and signs use the same words as in Italy: "via" (street), "piazza" (square), "centro" (centre) and "parcheggio" (car park). The country's nine districts are called "castelli", meaning castles. The three towers from the coat of arms appear on flags and public buildings.
Roads
Traffic drives on the right, with signs and markings very much like Italy's. A wide main road climbs from the Italian border towards the capital. Near the top, roads wind up the mountain in steep hairpins, and a cable car links the lower town of Borgo Maggiore with the old city.
Landscape and towns
The country lies in the foothills of the Apennine mountains. Gentle slopes are covered in fields, vineyards and patches of woodland, green in spring and golden in summer. Monte Titano is a long limestone ridge with a sheer cliff on one side, and from the top on a clear day you can see the Adriatic Sea.
The old City of San Marino is pale grey stone: battlements, towers, cobbled lanes, steep steps and lots of souvenir shops. Lower down, towns such as Serravalle look like ordinary modern Italian towns, with apartment blocks, terracotta roofs, shopping centres and workshops along the main roads.
Easily confused with
- Italy: The surrounding Italian regions look almost the same. San Marino's white-and-light-blue flags and three-tower coat of arms are the best clue; Italian flags are green, white and red.
- Vatican City: Both use Italian, but Vatican City is a small walled area inside Rome, with no hills or farmland. If you can see fields, hilltops or the three towers, it's San Marino.
Did you know? San Marino is often described as the oldest republic in the world. By tradition, it was founded in the year 301.
Vatican City
Vatican City is the smallest country in the world, a walled area in the middle of Rome and the home of the Pope, the head of the Catholic Church. Most of it is taken up by St Peter's Basilica, St Peter's Square, museums and gardens. Enormous stone buildings, a great dome and crowds of visitors tell you you're here.
Borders: Italy
Language and signs
Italian is the everyday language, and most signs are in Italian. Latin, the ancient language of Rome, is used in many official church documents and is carved in huge letters across the front of St Peter's Basilica. In those carvings V often stands where we would write U, as in "PAVLVS" for Paulus.
Roads
Traffic drives on the right, but there are hardly any roads. Inside the walls, short lanes wind between buildings and gardens, used mainly by staff vehicles, and St Peter's Square is for people on foot. The busy roads just outside belong to Rome.
Landscape and towns
Vatican City sits on a low hill on the west bank of the River Tiber. Behind the basilica, the Vatican Gardens fill about half the country with lawns, clipped hedges, fountains, umbrella pines, cypresses and palms.
St Peter's Square is a vast oval wrapped in curving rows of giant columns, topped by statues of saints, with an ancient Egyptian obelisk in the middle. The buildings are grand, made of cream and honey-coloured stone. The ground is paved with small square stones called "sampietrini", a name that comes from St Peter.
Easily confused with
- Italy: Rome surrounds the Vatican and shares its stone, pine trees and Italian signs. Ordinary traffic, shops and apartment blocks mean Rome. Yellow-and-white flags showing crossed keys mean the Vatican.
- San Marino: San Marino also uses Italian, but it's a hilly country with farmland, small towns and towers on a mountain, not a group of grand buildings in a capital city.
Did you know? The Pope is protected by the Swiss Guard, whose soldiers wear striped blue, red and yellow uniforms. They have guarded the Pope for more than 500 years.
Gibraltar
Gibraltar is a narrow peninsula near the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, facing Africa across the sea. Nearly everything sits beneath the Rock of Gibraltar, a huge limestone ridge more than 400 metres high. English signs, traffic on the right and buildings packed tightly between the Rock and the sea make it easy to spot.
Borders: Spain
Language and signs
English is the official language, so street signs and shop names are in English. Many people also speak Spanish, and locals often mix the two in a way of speaking called Llanito. Street names sound British, such as Main Street and Line Wall Road.
Roads
Traffic drives on the right, even though many signs are in a British style. Roads are narrow and steep, with tight bends and tunnels through the Rock. Some old-town lanes are too narrow for cars and turn into flights of steps.
Landscape and towns
The Rock climbs steeply above the town, covered in dense scrub, wild olive trees and bare grey cliffs. Sea surrounds Gibraltar on three sides, and on a clear day you can see Morocco across the Strait. When the wind blows from the east, a cloud often sits on top of the Rock.
The town is squeezed onto a narrow strip on the Rock's western side. Older streets have tall, narrow houses with painted walls, wooden shutters and iron balconies. Red post boxes and red phone boxes add a British touch. Newer districts on reclaimed land have apartment towers and marinas.
Easily confused with
- Spain: La Línea, the Spanish town across the border, also drives on the right, but its signs are in Spanish and the Rock is a backdrop rather than right overhead.
- United Kingdom: English signs and red post boxes can look like Britain, but British traffic drives on the left.
- Malta: Malta also mixes English signs, red post boxes and limestone, but it drives on the left, and its signs often show Maltese words with letters like ħ and ż.
Did you know? Gibraltar is home to Barbary macaques, monkeys with only a tiny stump of a tail. They are the only wild monkeys living anywhere in Europe.
Quick round-up: Catalan signs and slate roofs in a mountain valley, think Andorra. German on a flat valley floor near the Rhine, think Liechtenstein. French with yachts and tower blocks on a steep coast, think Monaco. Italian on a hilltop with three stone towers, think San Marino. Italian among giant columns beneath a dome, think Vatican City. English signs, traffic on the right and a huge rock overhead, think Gibraltar.