SAN MARINO
The devil was back in San Marino.
Sixteen hundred and forty-eight years ago, the Dalmatian stonecutter Marinus arrived on the rocky slopes of Mount Titano, in central Italy, drove out the fat brown bears who inhabited the mountain, and founded the republic now known as San Marino. To lead a counterattack against Marinus, the story goes, the ursine exiles selected a huge black bear, who was actually Satan in disguise. Marinus lured the devil bear to the edge of a precipice and thrust a wooden cross in his face. The evil one...