Rimini

Now I'm back in the north, where the atmosphere is less Roman Empire and more Renaissance. The people look more fashionable and prosperous, and the pace of life is faster, though still notably slower than in the USA. Victoria commented that she had never before seen so many well-dressed people, all riding around on bicycles!

A few days ago, we visited Rimini, a beach town not far fom Bolognia. The description in our Lonely Planet guidebook didn’t encourage a visit, but Juliette really wanted to go to the beach, so we went. It actually turned out to be a rather nice place to spend a day or two, at least during the off-season. I chalk it up to Lonely Planet’s reverse snobbery… for example; they are constantly disparaging the cuisine of Emilia-Romagna because it contains so much meat.

 

Rimini has a pleasant medieval town square, many seaside restaurants and bars, and wide, tree-lined avenues punctuated by traffic circles with large marble fountains in the centers. Tourists (including my family) pose for photos in front of the Hotel Grand, a relic from a bygone era of elegance. Picturesque fishing boats fill the canal leading to the sea. The streets are filled with holidaymakers on the ubiquitous Vespa. The amount of bare flesh on the beach is witness to the fact that Italy doesn't suffer under the same yoke of puritan history as does the US. Amid the crowd, we watch old men in Speedos play Bacci in a court dug out of the sand. If nothing else, this trip gave us a chance to see how the Italians spend their holidays.