SCENES FROM SAN MARINO

Growing up in the island of Cebu, my favorite foreign stamps from my ever-increasing prized collection were from Andorra, Liechtenstein, the Vatican, Monaco, and San Marino—simply because of their eye-catching mega-sized seals, which came in a variety of unconventional shapes and styles, designs and dimensions.

Due to the sweet innocence of youth, accentuated by a child’s quick propensity to judge blindly, I had this strong belief that the largest prints were from none other than utopian nations with towering timbers, piercing peaks, productive farms, soaring skyscrapers, enterprising industries with big businesses, and undefeatable defense forces.

However, as the years passed by, my thirst for knowledge increased. And with the aid of encyclopedias—the Wikipedia of yesteryears—supplemented by scrutinizing library-grade globes with the correct axis