World Borders: How To Get From Italy 🇮🇹 To Seborga 💙🩵🤍👑👸Local Minibus From Bordighera

World Borders: How To Get From Italy 🇮🇹 To Seborga 💙🩵🤍👑👸 – Local Minibus From Bordighera

“I know the roads on which your life will drive” – Noel Gallagher.

I thought it would be a wild one. I knew it would be a wild one. Yet despite all that, and my years of backpacking 🎒 (21) and of travel blogging (17), I didn’t quite expect this to be blow minding. It surpassed all that, this was one of the wildest ones. Seborga away was nuts and everyone should visit Seborga.

I was about to be coverwhelmed, yes better than overwhelmed. This was my view on my border crossing into Seborga…and the photo will never do it justice, simply gorgeous.

So how do we do it? This is easy and I crossed this border fource (4 times). I crossed once by minibus, once by car and twice by foot. But the coolest way was by minibus as you are driving fast and had no time to pause, dwell and contemplate this stunnigator. Wow.

Base Yourself In Bordighera, Italy 🇮🇹

I recommend at least a night in Ventimiglia or Bordighera. I loved both and chose to stay in the charming Hotel Lucciola in Bordighera in Italy.

Obviously I’m a selfish blogger and I loved that town hence why I recommend it. Its a pure thrill firer intill anyone’s eager cannon. After whackpacking the sights in beautiful Bordighera, I decided on a border minibus up into the mountains ⛰️ to backpack Seborga. I didn’t book any of this in advance. In fact, a week before the trip, I wasn’t sure I would even do it.

Time arrived for me to finally backpack Seborga, but via Italy of course since Seborga is a landlocked country up in the mountains. Here is how to find it on the map…

Leaving Bordighera, Italy for Seborga

I chose the local minibus. Seborga has no airport, seaport, heliport or train station open to everyday backpackers. You need to walk or drive here.

So instead of walking or hiring a car, I decided to get the local minibus from Bordighera. Go to the main train station in Bordighera. Bordighera doesn’t really have a bus station, but the bus stop to the west of the train station entrance is as good as a “Bordighera Bus Station”.

Firstly, as of May 2024, there are NO buses from Bordighera to Seborga on a Sunday, so time that one right. The Monday to Saturday schedule seems to be correct. I had a choice of going to Seborga on 4 Friday options or 4 Saturday options. I chose the 2nd Saturday option, the 10.45 a.m. bus. It’s bus number 10, check my photos.

The bus timetable was online here but I’m still quite ungooglemapic and so I went to the bus stop myself to double check. Italian people are incredibly friendly if you greet them and at least try a bit of Italian. It would be a proper nationalistic country for me if they didn’t sell their soul from the Lira to the dreaded Euro (story, for another day). I loved the cafes and bars mind.

On a Saturday, I was sure the bus left at 10.45 a.m. so I went there at 9.29 a.m. to double check. I confirmed with 2 locals and so I went to Nadia Cafe opposite for coffee. After that I even had time for a swift red wine, spud and tuna bread brace on route to my border bus. That was at Cafe Monet.

Boarding The Border Bus

At the bus stop, I chat in shit dialect to my 7 fellow passengers. They’re all Italian or Seborgan. I’m the only foreigner in town. They’re all really friendly! Maybe it’s my enthusiasm, I don’t know, but I’m buoyant. I get on board and pay the 2.50 Euros in cash. I’m given a ticket 🎟 which must then be stamped. I stamp it and within seconds, we escape from the realms of the Italian seaside town of Bordighera.

I’m in dreamland here.

The views as we leave behind dreamy Bordighera are stunnigating, amazing, blowminding.

This minibus journey is whackpacking to the core. I crackjack a red wine I had bought in Italy and I neck it on route. I couldn’t remember a more glorious border crossing than this – pure travel bliss and I thought I was getting too old and bored of backpacking. This beats about 150 of the borders I crossed before.

Arrival In Seborga

On the minibus on the way up, keep your eyes peeled for the border entrance. Firstly, on your right you will see the guard’s box and border post. This is usually unmanned and was on my trip. Beside this is the sign of SEBORGA, and you have now left Italy and are in Seborga.

Getting Your Passport Stamped In Seborga

The good news is, for nationalists and separatists like me you can get a passport stamp on arrival in Seborga, though you don’t get one for leaving Italy (shame – more EU excrement). To get the passport stamp in Seborga, you can head to the main shop on the right on the way through the old town, or on the left just past the fountain. I ended up getting both passport stamps – one was in blue ink, one was in black ink. It’s not mandatory to get this of course, but I always feel more legitimately in a country once I’ve gone through immigration, got my stamp and spoken to the border guard. In this case, my border guards in the shop was Laura, and further down by the fountain it was Mela.

Mela tells me her’s is the official government passport stamp and the one in the shop is the more touristy one. I wanted both anyway!

And so all of a sudden, I am actually in Seborga! I have left the Eu, I have left Italy. I swap money from Euros into the local Luigini. Seborga has a population of less than 300 but it’s a real country for me – it has all the attributes and I loved backpacking it.

Seborga is a Proper Country

Seborga has its own government, leader, border, flag, stamps, coins, banknotes, currency, postage stamps, national football team and immigration passport stamp. Ironically for the Italians and Spanish, this is more of a country than they will ever be since they lost their currencies and passport stamps to the EU!

By crazy coincidences and wildness I actually crossed the Italy to Seborga border thrice – the first time by mini-bus, the second time by foot as I hiked down from Seborga to Italy then hiked back up, the third time, when I was leaving I ended up leaving by car because the bus was cancelled! I also tried the national dish which is rabbit, and I ate that in the only open restaurant in the old town. Here are a few photos from the border the time I hikepacked it.

Here are some of my videos from backpacking across the border from Italy to Seborga: