A day of two halves…

… today firstly looking around the shops in Rimini old town then a check of some of the historic sites in the area.

Rather than driving into Rimini we took the Metromare which effectively is a one lane busway into and out of Rimini serviced by modern trolley buses running at around 10 minute intervals.

With shops not opening till 10 and then closing again at around 12.30 for the siesta one doesn’t have too much time to check out the fare on offer across the city but I’m told that the shops were disappointing.

Rimini (Roman name Ariminum) was established in 268 BC which means that it is 2291 years old and not unsurprisingly the main tourist highlights are related to Roman times so we listed a couple and set off firstly to the Pont Di Tibero, a bridge constructed in Iberian stone in the period 14 - 21AD. It is 70 metres long on 5 arches placed on massive pillars.

Nearby, according to the tourist map is the birthplace of  Federico Fellini, who has been recognised as one of the greatest and influential filmmakers of all time, and even though his name appears everywhere in Rimini the tourist map places his birthplace house in a different location than it actually is and we don’t believe we found the correct property.

Then it was across town to Porta Montanara which dates back to the 1st century BC and is constructed from blocks of sandstone - in its day this door was access to the city from Via Aretina

Then following beside the Bastioni Meridionali we walked to the Arco d’Augusto which is the oldest preserved arch in Northern Italy and marks the entrance to the city for those arriving from the Flaminia, the route used from Rome to Rimini, and was erected in 27BC

Finally before returning to the Metromare station we passed the remains of the Anfiteatro Romano, rather uninspiring remains of a 2nd century AD Roman amphitheatre 

After arriving back at Rivazzurra where our hotel is located we had another swim at beach 128, again in tepid water.

Kms driven to date 3056

Kms walked to date 449.9

Spent on Diesel €226.02

Highest price paid to date for diesel €1.699 Verona

Lowest price paid to date for diesel €1.479 Freiburg

Spent on tolls €45.10

On top of the world….

….almost.

Surrounded by Italy with its highest point above sea level being at 749m, hilly topography and substantially no flat land sits The Most Serene Republic of San Marino.

It is the 5th smallest country in the world and one of only 3 countries in the world completely enclosed by another country and has been independent since 301AD.

Being only a 25km drive from Rimini it was an obvious choice for a visit and allowed us to tick off another country that we have set foot in.

From the carpark everything in the old town sits above you and once you have climbed the steps to get inside the outer walls one couldn’t help but be impressed by the how clean it was and there was also the “smell” of wealth.

Whether or not there was something special on today or it is a common occurrence but there were numerous folk dressed in their medieval garb demonstrating crafts that their ancestors practised.

If there was a criticism it was that shops were very repetitive - leather goods, watches & jewellery, perfume, guns and swords, restaurants, souvenir shops and an odd miscellaneous store.

There were numerous areas where locals played ancient games with visitors 

and performers entertaining everyone 

Short video of some drummers

The view out over the surrounding countryside was magnificent 

and can be better seen in this video

It was well worth our visit even though the walking was hot and mostly uphill.

Arrived back in Rimini and took to the ocean using a strategy of walking straight past the attendants, bag down on sand by sea and into the ocean, an ocean where the water temperature was similar to a tepid bath - very refreshing.

After dinner tonight as we walked back to the hotel by the beach I took a couple of photos showing areas of the beach now deserted of people but the umbrellas and loungers neatly set in rows waiting for the punters tomorrow.

Kms driven to date 3056

Kms walked to date 437.4

Spent on Diesel €226.02

Highest price paid to date for diesel €1.699 Verona

Lowest price paid to date for diesel €1.479 Freiburg

Spent on tolls €45.10

It’s nice to be beside the seaside

Rimini is where we arrived today being just a 60km trip south.

As checkin was not until 3pm we set the GPS for Rimini Centro found a parking area and ventured into the old town arriving around 11.00am.

We took directions from a helpful young lady and arrived at a cavernous Piazza Cavour

As we moved further into the town we found what appeared to be the main piazza bustling with people as it was the weekly Saturday market with plenty of stalls through the town mainly selling women’s clothing.

We had lunch in a caffe (today a piada which is the equivalent in these parts of a piadina) before returning to the car to move to our accommodation which is approximately 5km down the coast. Getting the car out of the carpark was something of a mission as it was one of those carparks where the barrier opens once the system has automatically read the registration number that was manually entered into the machine on arrival but it did not recognise the reg number and so the barrier stayed firmly down, there being no attendant on site to assist and the “call here in an emergency” system at the gate didn't raise anyone either.

We therefore reparked the car and went and purchased another ticket - why this time it cost €3 when it was €1 when we brought the last one is a mystery - and then drove up to the barrier which, thankfully, this time opened.

Got to the hotel which is 50m back from the beach area and checked in before taking a walk. The atmosphere is very much like the Gold Coast but on steroids and the beach “Riviera Romagnola” is said to be 15kms long - each portion of the beach being individually numbered, their being about 250 of them each privately managed, and each consists of beachside changing cubicles, hired umbrellas and hired loungers and a mass of people using them. The area is Italy’s biggest beach resort and is famous all over Europe, hosting over 1000 hotels.

We had a walk along the shore - water acceptably warm - from beach 128 to beach 148, and there were umbrellas and people as far as the eye could see.

There were rental pedo-boats available on every beach

As we walked we saw a sign indicating that the “free beach” was further along so as we left the beach at 148 Sherry asked a girl in the kiosk whether one needed to pay to swim and we were told that you are obliged to either rent a lounger or an umbrella at €20 to access the beach!!! We will need to devise a strategy to get around that as paying close to $NZD40 to have a swim in God’s ocean doesn’t sit well!

Sam, the following photo is the “rescue craft” used by the life guards here and is a far cry from Red Beach’s IRB that you use!

Tomorrow we plan to take a trip to San Marino

Kms driven to date 3006

Kms walked to date 431.9

Spent on Diesel €203.66

Highest price paid to date for diesel €1.699 Verona

Lowest price paid to date for diesel €1.479 Freiburg

Spent on tolls €45.10

Street signs

Also in the square we noticed the following

A rainbow flag with PACE on it hanging from a balcony and immediately thought it was some reference to the LGBT+ community however when we did some googling it was anything but.

Pace is Italian for Peace and this flag became popular with the Pace da tutti i balconi (peace from every balcony) campaign in 2002 which started as a protest against the impending war in Iraq and we assume that it flies now because of the Ukrainian conflict. In any event it is a campaign that has turned 21 this year!

Mosaics

Eight Early Christian monuments in the City of Ravenna are included in the UNESCO World Heritage List because “of the outstanding universal value and remarkable significance of the supreme artistry of the mosaics that the monuments contain as well as the crucial evidence that they provide of artistic and religious relationships at an important period of European cultural history “

The Mausoleo di Galla Placidia was built mid 5th century by the sister of Emporer Honorius. While the outside is simplistic that contrasts with the lavish decorations of the interior.

The Basilica Di San Vitale which was consecrated in 548 AD is one of the most important monuments of Early Christian art.

The mosaics on the apse depict the Byzantine imperial couple Justinian and Theodora

Then there was Basilica di S. Apollinare Nouvo erected in the 6th century by Theoderic

The final monument we visited was Battistero degli Ortodossi, one of the oldest monuments in Ravenna, dating to the early 5th century 

All were stunning examples of superb craftsmanship when civilisation was still in nappies relatively speaking.

I took a video (here) which sums up the Italian psyche when it comes to parking their cars - anywhere and everywhere. Just after I stopped the video a 6th car pulled up alongside the Porsche, the driver hopped out and left his lights flashing as well, all 6 in a no parking area.

Also I’m more convinced than ever that Italian drivers regard pedestrians as mere skittles, you take your life into your hands if you start to cross on a crossing if you haven’t made sure the car approaching is going to stop.

I’m posting a seperate post today of some of the street signs I photo’d which highlights the fact that this is indeed a city of the mosaic.

Kms driven to date 2936

Kms walked to date 424.4

Spent on Diesel €203.66

Highest price paid to date for diesel €1.699 Verona

Lowest price paid to date for diesel €1.479 Freiburg

Spent on tolls €42.50

Moving day

Left Verona this morning and moved onto Ravenna which is close to the Adriatic coast and the first stop of 7 that we have scheduled as we travel down the eastern side of Italy.

Once I got us out of Verona, Sherry did a good shift as we travelled along the four lane A1, though she was heard to cuss a couple of times however when there was a convoy of 50ish trucks that required passing on a 2 lane stretch while being aware that those behind had every intention of keeping their speed at or above the 130kmph limit.

At our lunch stop in one of the auto stops we found our ideal lunch, a heated Buffolini which is a focaccia sandwich filled with mozzarella, prosciutto and lettuce. Nice as they are if you convert the cost to New Zealand dollars you might be tempted to revert to dry crackers!

Arrived in Ravenna around 1.30 and found the accommodation, a nice apartment about 30 minutes walk from Centro but as checkin was not available until 3pm (our hostess had been very firm on that) we parked the car and did the walk calling in at the Tourist information ℹ️ centre to pick up the city map and get a steer on highlights of the city.

We were only in Centro for around 30 minutes before returning to checkin but that gave us time to see Dante’s tomb. Dante Alighieri was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher who died in Ravenna in 1321

This is our first stop where siesta is “observed” and the city centre was very much dead and stays that way from around 1pm to 4pm

We look forward to seeing more of the must sees tomorrow.

Kms driven to date 2930

Kms walked to date 412.7

Spent on Diesel €203.66

Highest price paid to date for diesel €1.699 Verona

Lowest price paid to date for diesel €1.479 Freiburg

Spent on tolls €42.50

A mall

A relatively quiet day today as we ventured to a shopping mall (Adigeo)  about 6kms from the apartment.

As far as shopping malls go it was:

Modern

Bright

Very spacious

Well patronised

Had free (which is unusual) easy to use (also unusual) underground car parking 

Mainly clothing stores

While it seemed like we walked a million miles around it by the time we had finished and returned home 5 hours after leaving we had only walked 2.4 kms - all that effort for little reward!!

I thought as I saw how well stocked the stores were that if every resident of Verona called and purchased 5 items of clothing each it would barely make a dent in the stock on display across the mall.

Filled the car up on the way home and paid the highest per litre price so far on the trip but only €0.02/litre more than websites were indicating the price of diesel was in Italy prior to us leaving home and the extra may have been due to the fact that an attendant filled it up. At least there is competition as in Verona I have seen it ranging from €1.679 to €2.059/litre and within 200m of where we filled there was a servo pricing it at €1.759/litre.

Today I checked back against the number of kilometres we had estimated we would have driven by this point of the trip and our estimated travel was 2688 against an actual distance travelled of 2706

An item on the TV news this morning was highlighting the storm damage in Milan yesterday and showed large trees completely ripped out of the ground and debris strewn everywhere and if I understood the item correctly 3 people killed - we feel for our lady friend from yesterday.

Tomorrow we move further on out towards the eastern coast of Italy to Ravenna which was severely flooded as recently as 17 May this year and the TV pictures we saw were of cars being washed down the road and people being evacuated from their properties - will it be cleaned up by now or still look like Gisborne following the January cyclone?

Some thoughts on differences noticed between Germany & Italy so far:

A typical German lunch is cheaper than an Italian lunch

Italy have a per person cover charge in restaurants 

A typical Italian evening meal is cheaper than a German meal but the cover charge evens the cost out

Supermarket food prices very similar 

Doesn’t appear to be a tipping culture in Italy

Easier driving on Germany city roads

German roads less chaotic

German drivers more “polite” and less “aggressive”

Doesn’t appear that there is a charge to use public toilets in Italy (so far)

To checkin to an Italian hotel/apartment you need to produce your passport - in Germany not required 

There is a more obvious Police presence on the streets in Italy compared with Germany

Kms driven to date 2706

Kms walked to date 404.9

Spent on Diesel €203.66

Highest price paid to date for diesel €1.699 Verona

Lowest price paid to date for diesel €1.479 Freiburg

Spent on tolls €27.60

Chaos caused by beauties!

Last night around midnight there was the mother of all thunderstorms coupled with hail. We are on the 7th and top floor of this apartment block and the hail sounded like large rocks hitting the roof while the lightning lit up the bedroom even though the outside metal shutters that are common in Europe were covering the windows.

Not to be outdone his mate followed along around 5 am and carried out another full assault on the building.

As I lay in bed listening to the outside noises I couldn’t help thinking of something I wrote in my blog of 25 August 2019 when we were in St Etienne.

Spoke to another guest at StE accommodation before we left. He is from Canada (born in Belgium) and travels around Canada, Belgium and France repairing vehicles damaged by hail stones using a “dent removal process” and without damaging the paint.

There was a hailstorm in StE about 2 months ago and he will be there for around 4 months as he has a contract with one firm to repair 300 vehicles!

As soon as I was able I quickly looked out the window and saw that the 308 was clear of any damage.

We went to Peschiera del Garda today by train and that had some challenges because of the two beauties. We arrived at the station in good time for our train to find that the station was overcrowded and announcements over the loudspeaker were constant. We only needed to look at the arrivals and departures board to see that trains this morning were running anything but on time due we figured to issues caused by last nights storm.

Our train was scheduled to be on time so we went onto the appropriate platform and waited for it and it duly arrived but some 5 minutes delayed - found some seats and waited for it to move off, and waited and waited.

Sitting opposite us was a lady of some age (we found it difficult to judge just how old) so we were lucky enough to strike up a conversation as her English was better that our Italian. Standing on the platform to see her depart was a man of similar age who she told us was her husband who she had been with for 23 years but only married for the last two - he had a home in Verona and she a home in Milan and so there was regular travel between the two cities for her and today she was returning to Milan. She implied that the secret to their relationship was that they lived apart!!! She showed us photos of her garden where a large pine tree from a neighbouring property had fallen into over night so the storm was very widespread. She took great interest in our holiday and wanted to know where we were travelling to. Talking with her helped pass the time as the train took forever to move off and when it did we travelled though very wet conditions but by the time we arrived the weather had cleared so I guess the delay had its pluses.

Peschiera del Garda, as the name suggests is a town at the southern end of Lake Garda and from the numerous English accents we heard as walked around some of the shoreline is a favourite with the Brits on their summer break.

While we had brunch at a cafe adjacent to the main road I stopped counting after seeing 20 vehicles with smashed windscreens and some  being very pitted with small dents so clearly the storms had done their damage in PdG and again I thought of the Canadian dent repairer

Audi with pitted windscreen

It turned out to be a hot day and so we went for our second swim on this tour - the underfoot was pebbles but once one was in the water was very pleasant. Time passed reasonable quickly and before we knew it it was time to return to the station to get the afternoon train home.

The train arrived some 10 minutes late and after everyone was in just sat there until finally there was an announcement that there was some issue on the line and there would be a delay. Cutting a long story short this train was delayed 1hr 22 minutes - not a good day for Italian Railways.

As for PdG like most locations which look out to water there were some great sights particularly with the Dolomites in the back ground 

Something common here and in Germany are dog owners taking their dogs for walkies but in push chairs or similar

This couple had two in separate pushchairs- the photo on the right I took over my shoulder so as not to be too obvious and I hope like hell this guy didn’t see me taking one of him

A Bandido from Australia 

It was good to get out of the city but the delays on the trains were frustrating.

Enjoyed a nice meal on the Piazza Bra before walking back home

Kms driven to date 2691

Kms walked to date 399.2

Spent on Diesel €129.66

Highest price paid to date for diesel €1.579 Würzburg 

Lowest price paid to date for diesel €1.479 Freiburg

Spent on tolls €27.60