FLASHBACK # 64C: Italy - Beccia, San Marino, Rimini

Day 7 – 7 July – Beccia to San Marino to Rimini - 25ºC

After waking at 9am, we had a breakfast of croissants and coffee. When we checked out, we were told that the credit card machine wasn't working. We had to settle the €113 bill with ALL of our cash. Completely devoid of cash after leaving the hotel, we stopped at an ATM in the town of Della Verna and stacked out wallets for any further hidden surprises. Relieved to have dosh in our pockets, we continued our drive. In the town, nuns walked along the roadside in solitude.

We headed towards the E45 which we joined at Pieve Santo for the 10km journey to Sansepolcro. From there, we took the scenic SS250 to San Marino. We travelled over the Montefeltro region towards San Marino. At one point, we noticed a small group of white cows and Bree pointed out that the landscape didn’t seem to have any birds whatsoever. The traffic was very light which was great for us – no aggressive Italian's brushing against the back of our car today! We arrived at San Marino with it's towering peak, just after mid-day.

San Marino is an interesting place. Located at 657m above sea level yet just 10km from the Adriatic Ocean, the 61 square kilometre Republic is Europe’s third smallest state after the Vatican and Monaco. Several legends describe the founding of this hilly city-state. One story tells how a stonecutter was given the land on top of Monte Titano by a rich Roman woman whose son he had cured.

During World War II, San Marino remained neutral and played host to 100,000 refugees until 1944, when the Allies marched into the town. San Marino joined the European Council in 1988 and the United Nations in 1992. Citizenship is passed on only through the male line and domestic staff under the age of 50 have been banned after a wave of gold-diggers, posing as domestic staff, married many wealthy natives for their money, jeopardising the state’s wealth.

The first things we noticed was the castle atop the towering town and that San Marino's vehicles had their own license plates.


We parked at the cable car station and bought tickets to travel up to the Old Town. We spent three hours in San Marino, admiring the views (you can see the Adriatic Sea from here) and visiting the Prime Tower. Afterwards, we ate hamburgers with Iced Tea before heading to Palazzo Publicco to witness the Changing of the Guard.

We bought Digicams for €250 each and a bottle of Bacardi for the rest of our journey, which cost just €12 as opposed to the €22 you would pay in Finland. Still, I doubt there will be any left in this bottle by the time we leave Italy!

We left just after 3pm and headed to Rimini – it was a hazy afternoon, but warm. Finding our hotel was easy – while driving towards the sea, Hotel Arinium was clearly sign-posted. We checked in and one pleasant surprise was that secure on-site parking was included! By 5pm, we were in the sea. Literally. It was warm, very salty and the tide had a strong northerly pull. Para-surfers dotted the sea, and the shore was lined with sunbeds and umbrellas for hire for as far as the human eye could see.

Rimini was just like any other beach destination – beach, sea, watersports and sunbeds for sale, neon-lit stores and lot's of chips to eat! It felt like I had been magically transported to a Spanish Island.

On the Adriatic Sea, the wind was strong as we headed – on foot – north along the beach. After an hour, we headed back to the hotel, showered and changed then went out in search of dinner. As we left the hotel, we met this Irish woman in her 30s and her young daughter in the lift. Apparently, they had problems with their air conditioning and were about to complain for the third time. Oh, dear!

Outside, we headed towards the centre of the town via the same road as our hotel; we passed countless souvenir stores selling all the usual tat, mini-supermarkets, cosmetic stores, boutiques and, of course, restaurants and bars.

We finally found a restaurant where we shared a litre of local wine and ate Spaghetti Carbonara and Mixed Grills. During the dinner, I was amazed when I saw a timid, young boy no older than eight or nine selling flowers at our table. Nine years old, I tell you! I was stunned!

The day had been a fairly dramatic one, actually – while we had been in San Marino, a shop owner had asked if I was from London. After I confirmed, he told me that there had been a series of bombings in London. Details had been sketchy, but later on it had emerged that one double decker bus had been bombed and three tube stations had been attacked. More than 50 people were said to have died. How tragic.

After the dinner, we walked a bit further and found the Centre of Rimini. A shopping mall and a fire-eater were the highlights along with the mass of people. We went into a novelty store where we came across some naughty adult products. Some of them were very original and downright hilarious!

As we headed back, we contemplated desert. Bree paid €15 for two ice cream deserts. And they were well worth it! We walked the rest of the way to the hotel and had a drink in our hotel room. It was so relaxing and, by midnight, we were snuggled up in bed.

Day 8 – 8 July – Rimini - 25ºC

Woke up at 9am, then went for breakfast; cereal, boiled eggs on toast, fruit salad and yoghurt with coffee and juice. Yummy!

We collected our beach things, then headed to Beach 78, just 30 metres from our hotel. The sky was hazy, the temperature pleasant. We found some sunbeds close to the sea, but just as I removed my over-shorts, I felt a drop of rain. I hesitated for a moment, sensing that the downpour had only just begun. We abandoned the beds, grateful that we hadn't parted with the hefty €15 daily fee.

We headed back to the hotel and relaxed on the sheltered veranda. After a while, the rain really fell – I updated my diary and Bree continued reading Da Vinci Code; I had bought the Finnish version for him not so long ago…

After an hour, we ventured out on the hotel's complimentary bikes. We took the seaside route to the north and, after half an hour, came to a marina with an isolated pier. We rode out to the pier where the waves crashed onto the breakwater with considerable force. When we returned to the marina, we drove around in the direction of the historic centre. The roads became cobbled so we knew we were heading in the right direction. As the last of the boats receded, we saw Ponte di Tiberio (Tiberius' bridge), a reminder of the city’s importance to the Roman Empire. The original bridge had been laid at this point in the 1st Century.

Soon, we had reached the centre of the old town, a not-so-busy square where we saw Castel Sismondo, so named after one of the Malatesta family. Sigisnomdo was a far from ideal ruler: Pope Pius II – also no angel – burned his effigy in Rome and condemned him to hell for his crimes which included rape, murder, incest, adultery and the severe oppression of his people.

We proceeded along the Corso d'Augusto to Piazza Cavour and reached the imposing Arco di Augusto (Arch of Augustus). From there, we headed back to the seafront where we ate lunch near the isolated pier at the foot of the marina. We ate piadane, thin pizza-like bread with toppings of your choice which is then folded over, very much like an omelette. We ate this with a huge salad before continuing our ride back to the hotel and returning the bikes.

The weather had improved so we headed to the beach. We arrived at the beach about 3pm. We paid €10 for the afternoon and, within half an hour, an angry looking grey rain-filled weather system parked itself above our beds and the heavens open. What a waste of €10!, I thought.

We spent the afternoon in the apartment. After showering, then reading for ten minutes, I decided to have a sleep. Apparently, Bree had slept too and we didn't wake until just before 8pm! We had been asleep for more than 3 hours which is so unlike me in the middle of the day – was I finally adopting the Italian tradition of an afternoon siesta?

The rain was still falling when we left the apartment. Bree told me he had heard thunder and lightning throughout the afternoon while we were napping. The rain was heavy and we went to the restaurant just beneath our hotel room. Known as Mister Grillo, the name was too tacky for what turned out to be a very good restaurant. We both ate Prawn Salad, Europa Pizza and Tramisu with a bottle of local wine. The cost of the meal was a little more than €50 – great value!

We took a walk to the South this time – the area went from four star hotels to three and two star hotels and started to look really shabby. We crossed onto the main seaside street and headed back to our hotel via the promenade, away from the booming music emanating from the two star area!

We got back to our hotel just after midnight and had a nightcap in the bar before turning in. I had Bacardi and Cke, Bree had Martini Bianco.

Day 9 – 9 July – Rimini - 27ºC

After waking at 9am and heading down for the usual breakfast, we decided to make the most of the weather and headed to the beach while blue sky remained. We grabbed some sunbeds, quickly unpacked, paid the €15 fee, got oiled up and laid skyward. I didn't move for the first thirty minutes, then took a dip in the sea – this early in the morning, the sun was particularly intense and the sea offered a welcome escape. As I waded my way out of the sea, I felt two very sudden pangs of pain, one under my left arm and one on my right foot. I had been stung by jelly fish. After a while, the pain went away, but ouch! Ow, sweeie, ow!

It wasn't surprising that more people dotted the shore than usual – it was a Saturday so, clearly, the town could expect more visitors than usual. I finally got an opportunity to do some reading – I was halfway through Dan Brown's Angel's & Demon's, a gripping read. We spent more than two hours on the beach, in relative silence, before the weather started to change. It got windier then greyer, culminating in heavy rainfall.

By 3pm, we had abandoned our sunbeds and headed back to the hotel. After showering, Bree continued reading and I updated my diary on my laptop. We made Pina Colada laced with extra Bacardi while a thunder and lightning storm brewed outside. I could feel the Pina Colada taking effect and had no option other than to have a sleep – I was in such a relaxed state.

I woke up just after 6pm and was amazed at how addictive these siestas were becoming! I couldn't remember having slept so well during the day. Bree was sitting on the small balcony, absorbing the last of the rays now the sun had returned. He had just finished reading his copy of Da Vinci Code.

We got dressed and walked beyond the centre of town, some 3kms away. We passed the usual stores selling naff stuff and set down in a packed out restaurant where a noisy, annoying waiter made the dropping of a metallic tray (to make people jump) into an art form. Honestly, I'm not making it up.

I ate a somewhat surprising version of crunchy vegetables for starters, Europa pizza and Mascarpone with coffee. Yummy! We chatted away whilst drinking a litre of local wine and watched the scene – the place was a madhouse; waiters dashed about, most of the time in a senseless, inefficient way. We watched the waiters busying themselves in their self-important way while we waited 30 minutes for our main course to arrive. As a result of the inefficient way in which the restaurant was being operated, we ended up leaving the restaurant richer than expected since they had forgotten to charge us for desert and coffee. €40 for three courses, including wine. A bargain!, even if we did have to listen to the noisy annoying waiter!

On this warm Saturday evening, the streets were alive with people. On-street gamblers tried to con people out of their money with their deceptive games, child xylophone players entertained for a fee and young people were selling club tickets in nearby Riccione on every street corner. There's no better way to watch all this going on than to sit down in an ice-cream parlour and down €15 worth of ice-cream, which we didn’t do this evening! Instead, we had an alcoholic drink in the same place. We walked the rest of the way back to the hotel and were in bed by 1am.