Rimini, Italy (October 2018)
Why Rimini you might ask? Steve restores rare Lambretta scooters and there is a specialist Lambretta centre in Rimini. He wanted to spend a day in Rimini Lambretta’s workshop learning about and testing out their two new engines which go super fast. So I set about building a short itinerary for a 2 night stay.
We flew into Rimini from London Stansted (a horrible airport I would try to avoid in future). It was a Tuesday morning and our flight was at a reasonable hour, made all the more pleasant thanks to an overnight stay at a nearby airport hotel (Premier Inn).
After a 2 hour flight we arrived at Rimini’s tiny, dirty airport at lunchtime on Tuesday October 16th. Our bags came out quickly and before we knew it we were outside at the taxi stand, dodging smokers. As Australia is smoke free everywhere now I always forget how much the Europeans love their cigarettes. Our taxi driver spoke good English, which should not be taken for granted in Italy, and 10 minutes / 25 Euros later we pulled up at our accommodation.
The hotel we had chosen was in the old part of town. In choosing where to stay I decided against one of the plentiful seaside hotels since we come from a country which has some of the best beaches in the world. Plus we had no intention of lying on a beach. Though there wasn’t a lot of choice off the seaside, through my research I found a cute looking boutique hotel in the old town which sounded interesting. Duomo Hotel was a funky modern hotel, easy walking distance to restaurants, shops and historic sites.
After we checked in and dropped off our bags, we then went for a wander. Most shops were shut since it was lunchtime siesta, but we admired the streets and buildings then found somewhere for lunch in a nearby Piazza. We sat in an outside restaurant area and I enjoyed some pizza while Steve had a seafood in light batter.
After lunch we walked up to the famous Arco d’Augusto. We found a bench nearby and sat there admiring the history and people watching.
Rimini’s old town was beautiful and full of history, like so many other parts of Italy. Later that afternoon we wandered up the cobbled streets in the other direction to find the old Tiberiun Bridge. It was overcast and around 22 degrees but felt muggy with rain in the air. It looked like the heavens were going to open. We made it back to our room just in time before it started to rain. We rested up a bit before heading out around 8.30pm for a light meal. I found a restaurant on TripAdvisor which had good reviews, but it took some finding. It was in a backstreet, called “Vicolo Wine & Food”. The food was really good and we sat by the window watching the rain pour down.
On the Wednesday, Steve caught the train to the village where Rimini Lambretta resides and I headed back towards town. I was lucky to stumble across street markets everywhere which only occur on Wednesdays and Saturdays – lucky me! I browsed the markets then wandered around town on my own and at my own pace. I found a nice Church (Templo Malatestiano) but it was shutting in 10 minutes. Then I found the Domus del Chirugo (surgeons house) which was old mosaics found in 1989 dating to 200 AD after some excavation in hte area. It shut at 1pm and the nice lady said it was free ticket today so I looked around for about 15 minutes. Next door was another Museum which had more mosaics and some of the surgeons tools they had found. Again it was due to shut at 1pm (it was now 12.20pm) and the man gave me a ticket and said it was free. Afterwards I walked back to Piazza Cavour, before heading over to visit Castel Sismondo. I spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around, taking photos and found the Roman ampitheatre ruins. My feet were hurting!
We had another nice meal in the evening at a restaurant around the corner “Osteria Brodo di Giuggiole”. Again there were good reviews on Tripadvisor and we went to bed feeling very full again!
A day and a half was ample time for exploring the local sites on foot. It was unusually hot and muggy for mid October and there were a lot of mosquitos about, as well as some rain, but this didn’t detract from our visit. The insect repellent someone recommended we take came in very handy, especially as we had to sleep with windows open due to the heat. To our frustration the hotel had switched off its Air Conditioning for the autumn.
Tips for Rimini.
- This is a seaside town, popular in summer, so is full of hotels along the seafront. If you aren’t there for the seaside or are visiting outside the summer season I recommend staying in the old town, even though there are not a lot of hotels there (only one or two).
- Take insect repellent. They don’t have flyscreens on the windows and if you want to sleep with the windows open, you will get bitten (although less so with repellent)
- Don’t try to drive or park in the old town without permission. I didn’t realise this road law and received a hefty fine in the post over a year later, after a temporary detour in the rental car to pick up our luggage from the hotel.