Consulat de Seborga - Seborga Consulate
I am pretty good in geography, and yet I had never come across a place called Seborga before. Googling promptly ensued.
Little did I know that Seborga is steeped in somewhat comical history. It's a municipality in northwest Italy that has claimed a micro nation status, harking back to the Middle Ages and the sale of an independent principality that was never legally registered. According to Wiki:
"In the early 1960s, Giorgio Carbone, then head of the local flower-growers co-operative, began promoting the idea that Seborga retained its historic independence as a principality. By 1963 the people of Seborga were sufficiently convinced of these arguments to elect Carbone as their ostensible head of state. He then assumed the self-styled title Giorgio I, Prince of Seborga, which he claimed thereafter.
Carbone's status as prince (although without any legal power) was further supported by locals on 23 April 1995, when, in an informal referendum, Seborgans voted 304 in favour, 4 against, for the principality's constitution, and in favour of independence from Italy. Carbone reigned until his death on 25 November 2009. The prince was known locally as Sua Tremendità ('Your Tremendousness')."
I love the flamboyant title! Your Tremendousness! You go, Seborga!
As of 2009, around 20 states recognized Seborga as an independent entity - the first one was Burkina Faso. Consular representation is maintained in 10 countries. I guess St Martin, though not a country, is one of them. Or it could just be an overzealous Seborga native having vacationed in St Martin and planting the flag and the consular plaque smack in the middle of the capital? Who's to say no?
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