Rimini

I wasn’t expecting much from Rimini, thinking it’s just an Italian seaside resort popular with bucket and spaders (as I told Wolfie, who in turn became quite surprised by the sheer number of things to do). As a consequence, I largely was going to treat it as a convenient place to stay – far cheaper than San Marino and also much more accessible to Bologna, which was useful as we had to get there for a lunchtime flight on the Monday. I had booked the 8:58am train out of Rimini, heading to the capital of Emilia-Romagna in an hour and a half. The plan then was to jump on the Marconi Express back to the airport. Fortunately, the delays we had experienced in Bologna on Thursday night did not materialise and although the train was absolutely rammed – and we were stuck next to an obese man who kept coughing every five minutes – we managed to get to the airport with over three hours to spare. This meant we ended up in the little trattoria bar outside Gate 12, eating a delicious sandwich of parma ham and trying the three craft beers they had from the Birrina brewery. These were all rather average, but it was a relaxed morning nonetheless, even if we did board our plane a little tipsy. Indeed, drinking was a common theme as these three beers took our total to 33 uniques for the trip, far higher than our current average as we've really cut down of late. One thing that didn’t make sense though was the demarcation of the Priority and Non-Priority queues, with the digital sign above the gate saying one thing and the hard signs pointing to the relevant lanes saying the opposite. It was all an undistinguished splat, with people just milling without direction, and I have noticed that this is a far more common thing post-pandemic. Perhaps it’s because budget airlines now permit huge bags to be taken on board but only with a Priority booking, meaning Priority doesn’t really mean anything anymore, or maybe it’s because people are out of practice when it comes to queuing. Either way, it has made flying far less enjoyable and indeed almost avoidable.

We hit Rimini at 4:30pm, having done most of San Marino earlier on the Sunday. This afforded us three hours of daylight to look around. The bus dropped us off outside the Augustus Arch, which was one stop away from Rimini Train Station, the end of the line and where we had boarded the bus to San Marino the previous day. Dedicated to Emperor Augustus by the Roman Senate in 27 BC, this is one of the oldest arches still standing, and highlights the importance of Rimini to the Roman world. It is set at the end of the via Flaminia, which connected the cities of Romagna to Rome. There are four shields on the arch, with Jupiter and Apollo on the Roman side, and Neptune and Roma facing the city of Rimini. Meanwhile, there is a detailed inscription above the archway itself which highlights the dedication.

Moving into the town from here, we took in a number of sights including the Tempio Malatestiano, which acts as the burial chapel for Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, the lord of the city, and his family. Alas, it was the time of mass so we could only look around it for a few minutes, but the atmosphere was rather heavy with the grandiosity of the iconography. We also checked out the fantastic Cavour Square, replete with a fountain upon which sits a pineapple, and a statue of Pope Paul V. This seems to be the main meeting point in the city, with a number of important government buildings and churches situated around it, and indeed there was a peace rally ongoing while we were there. The other thing worth noting was just how busy the city was at 5pm on a Sunday, with a market on the streets leading up to the square along with many people either eating in the cafes, strolling around the shops or just enjoying the early October sunshine. Alas, this also meant there were many people just cutting in front of us, oblivious to our presence - it seemed to be a real problem in Italy. It was also warmer than the windy San Marino had been, as well as the more northerly and mountain-set Bologna, with temperatures rivalling a pleasant summer’s day in England. Beneath the main clock tower in the heart of the city, we also saw a war memorial dedicated to the people who had died between 1943 and 1945, presumably defending it.

Our next stop was the fifteenth-century Castel Sismondo, constructed by the aforementioned Malatesta. Only the central nucleus of this castle remains, outside which sits a modern water feature that stands in for the moat. Construction of this brown-brick structure took 15 years from 1437, its towers are all orientated towards the city, facing east. It is believed the brickwork could withstand contemporary military advances and the walls are certainly thick enough. The Malatesta residence used to be inside, but in the nineteenth century it became a miliary barracks and much of it was allowed to decline. These days, little remains, but what does remain forms the focus of the Fellini Museum. All museums close at 7pm in Rimini and we had a choice – do this one or go to the Domus del Chirurgo (Surgeon's house) in the centre of the city, where 20 centuries of Rimini’s history is detailed. There are mosaics and the like here too, all covered up in a glass and wood structure. Indeed, we walked past it en route to our hotel, but ultimately, we decided that we had done this sort of thing before and Fellini was far more unique to Rimini. Federico Fellini was an accomplished movie director who won five Academy Awards. I didn’t know too much about him before visiting the museum, but since discovering his interests, way of working and focus on the Italian soul in his films, it left me wanting to find out more about him. I didn’t realise he did La Dolce Vita, a film I did know, but upon watching some of the excerpts from his movies, Wolfie and I are going to spend the autumn watching some of his masterpieces. The museum itself covered his life very well, with English language options throughout, while it went into detail about how he directed (you could even see his cherry picker which enabled him to get wide-angle camera shots which added to the wistfulness of his movies). There were some of his costumes on show, as well as some interactive displays detailing his influences. There was also a second museum further down the road, which invited visitors to find out much more about his life through digital databases, RFID-led clips, camera images and movie interviews with the people who knew him. Much of this can probably be found on the internet and this second museum, in a far more modern building further up the road from the castle, was less interesting than the one in the castle. Still, its entrance was a golden arch and it was protected by a life-size model of a rhinoceros so it was quite surreal, reflecting the surreal nature of some of Fellini’s work, particularly when it came to his view on advertising and how it affected the soul and feel of a movie.

I had said we would check in between 5pm and 6pm, and fearing the hotel’s displeasure, we headed down to the beach area shortly before 7pm as this was when the museum was closing anyway. The beach area is quite separate from the main city of Rimini and there is much less of interest here, catering for the sun-seeking holiday maker. The main drag is like many of its type, full of restaurants, bars and hotels pumping out music and trying to tantilise the tourist. We arrived on the beach front after a 20-minute walk from the city centre just as the sun was going down, enabling us to grab a quick view of the seafront from a blue-lit promontory (with a broken lift). Alas, much of the water was obscured by boats and a sea-side restaurant so little could be seen. I needn’t have worried about the check in, as the hotel were more than accommodating, with the price of €34 for the room a sign of the times as the number of Russian tourists has dropped significantly and October is not a popular time. Still, the room was very good value and after a quick freshen up, we were soon back on the strip searching for some food.

We knew that getting gourmet cuisine was unlikely, and checking Trip Advisor, most of the top restaurants were a good walk away. I didn’t want to aggravate Wolfie’s foot, while walking back through unlit streets was a little sketchy, so we opted to go to Bounty, a pirate-themed restaurant five minutes down the strip. This was rated the fourth best restaurant in Rimini on Trip Advisor and although it was a little gimmicky, it was certainly busy, as we had to wait in a long queue to get seated. They moved us through pretty quickly though and they even brewed their own blonde beer, meaning we had something new for Untappd. The waiters and waitresses were all dressed in pirate attire and the place was open until 4am, but I must admit the burgers and fries were quite good, if clearly geared towards the tourist crowd. The Angus burger with pink sauce I had was very nice, with my only complaint being the slowness of getting the bill. The music was of the dance variety but it wasn’t obnoxiously loud, contributing if anything to the ambience. We opted to sit inside, fearing it getting a little cold outside, which also afforded us the opportunity to watch Juventus take on Bologna in Serie A. All in all, it was a pleasurable experience, while I also got to talk to Wolfie about the ’puppy boyfriend’ meme he had sent me, which seemed to sum me up so accurately I wondered whether he had commissioned it or whether it had been done by someone who knows me. It was my puppy behaviour down to a T.

In Bounty, which was done up exactly like a pirate ship both inside and outside, we tried to find some local craft beer bars but there weren’t many. We eventually settled on Ex Beer Café, which was nine minutes back up the strip, the other side of our hotel to where we currently were. We decided to walk on the pavement this time rather than by the parked cars along the other side of the road, which made for a more pleasant experience. Ex Beer Café was tucked behind the main road, meaning it wasn’t too busy, with only one other couple there along with a lady with a boxer-type dog who clearly knew the owner. The dog was very obedient and at one point fell asleep in his owner’s arms, so much so you could hear the loud snoring. This happened while I was ordering my second round of beers. There were four beers here we hadn’t tried, so we ended up going for them, but their fizziness made Wolfie vomit foam after the third one, necessitating me finishing the final two. The barman was really friendly, and even offered us a complementary cheeseboard for which we tipped him heavily. I don’t know whether it was because it was just left over, or whether it was an act of kindness, but the cheeses on offer were good. The place was meant to close at 2am and I felt sorry for him, particularly as Bounty was so busy. I can only hope it’s more popular in the daytime as this is the closest place to craft beer you can get in the beach area of the city.

We had to be up for an 8:58am train on Monday, so we had to go back to the hotel reasonably early. We walked along the seafront, which was quite pleasant. When we got back, we ended up watching some kids TV show with one parent and one offspring competing against each other through some wacky challenges. This included smashing coloured eggs on the parents' heads and blowing a ping pong ball over two full cups of water. Surprisingly, considering I know little Italian, I got most of the general knowledge questions right, largely through my knowledge of Spanish.

The next morning, we got up and out promptly. This enabled us to see the Roman amphitheatre as it was on the way back to the station, as we took a different route to the previous night through a rather pleasant park. Little remains of the structure aside from some exterior walls with a couple of arches and the foundations of something in the middle. Most of the amphitheatre has not survived, with modern houses being plonked on half of it. We only managed to see the foundations as someone had kicked one of the gates guarding the patch of land open, as it was clearly off its hinges but still locked on the other side. It was a fortunate piece of serendipity on our behalf though.

After this, we got the aforementioned packed train and headed back to Berlin via Bologna Airport. There, I noticed that Fox Yume was also flying into Berlin, and we corresponded on Twitter about potentially meeting up. He was due to get into Brandenburg Airport at 3:15pm, with us scheduled for 3:30pm. In the end, we were 20 minutes late and as Yume switched from Twitter to Telegram to correspond with us, I didn’t notice his messages until Wolfie had already bought his ticket for the train. He was in one of the restaurants but at least managed to pop down to Platform 4 to meet us, if albeit briefly. After this, we headed our separate ways and got back to Spandau shortly after 5:30pm. As it was the last day of our holiday, and a national day here, we decided to order a takeaway curry rather than go with the pasta in the cupboard, realising that this will do for tomorrow evening’s food so we don’t need to go to the supermarket before cooking. Monday was also not a meat-free day anyway, whereas having pasta makes Tuesday far more likely to be meat-free. And that’s it really – it’s back to work tomorrow then we need to decide whether or not we go to Rotterdam later in the week. Key to this is being COVID-free, so we’ll keep testing and see how things look as the week progresses.