Understand
There has been a settlement at Rimini since pre-historic times. Founded by the Romans in 268 B.C., Rimini boasts a 2,000-year history that has left important marks testifying to its grandeur. To the Romans, Ariminum was a link between the "Italic" and the "Gallic" lands, a stronghold on the Adriatic and a gateway to the Po valley. Three major roads converged here - the Flaminian Way, the Aemilian Way and the Popilian Way.
Rimini today is a thriving, bustling resort on the Italian Riviera that boasts "over a thousand hotels". It is one of the least pretentious towns in Italy, and has a well-deserved reputation for.
This is a place where the Italians go for their sea and sun, and therefore the food is excellent as well as the people being friendly and helpful. You won't find many tour buses filled with Americans or English here! This also means, however, that few speak anything but Italian, so be sure to take your phrase book with you. The locals will work with you and are always happy to see a foreigner at least trying to communicate in their language.
Get in
By plane
As a renowned resort area, Rimini has its own airport. Rimini International Airport (IATA: RMI) Buses run the 7km from the airport to the train station in the centre of the town.
Some discount airlines go to Forli, Forli Airport (IATA: FRL) which is around 55 km from Rimini.
By train
There is a train line that runs up and down the coast from Rimini, to Ravenna in the north and Ancona in the south, via any number of smaller resort towns.
By car
The A14, a six-lane motorway known as the autostrada del mare runs away to the north. The SS 72 heads inland towards San Marino. The SS16 heads in from the North and Ravenna.
Get around
Most hotels are within walking distance of the beach and the centre, but if you want to take a trip along the coast or inland, buses run regularly from the train station and are frequent and cheap.
See
Do
Lounge on the 15km of beaches. Known as La Marina, the beachfront is by far the number one reason anybody comes to Rimini. Yes, there is an old town, but this is generally ignored by most tourists.
Over winter, the whole place becomes a ghost town with a lot of shops shutting until the warm season starts up again.
The new Rimini Fair host several important congress and fairs with a busy winter schedule Rimini Fiera.
In 2008 the new congress center will open in the center of the city.
Remember to take a dip in the Adriatic. The bay is warm and inviting and home to many interesting and friendly mammals.
Buy
Downtown are the best fashion boutiques, where is it possible to find the best Italian designer brands (Gucci, Prada, Armani, D&G, ...). In late 2005 the first and one of the biggest (in Romagna) shopping malls, called "Le Befane", opened. It's so big that it changed the landscape of the west side of the city.
For typically tourist stuff, the beachfront has small souvenir shops. If you enjoy scandalising the family or even your home country's postal service, don't miss some of the more risqué postacards on sale at any one of a number of the little shops on the seafront.
Eat
In Rimini you can find several good places to eat. Since the city is on the seashore it is suggested to have a fish-based dish. Some of the best restaUrant are: Lo Squero, Il Lurido, Da Guido, Marinelli. Usually with every dish you will get the famous "Piadina", a thin and very tasty sort of bread.
At the beach in the San Guiliano a Mare area, there are restaurants on the beach where one typically dines Al Fresco in warm weather. Although one might be wary of such establishments, the food is excellent and inexpensive. A typical dinner might cost only 5-6 euros for the meal alone. Sometimes they offer a multi-plate dinner (good for 2 or even 3 persons) for 18 euros that includes a 1/4 litre of wine.
There are also excellent restaurants just off the main streets.
Drink
The whole town is geared towards tourists, so there are bars and nightclubs everywhere. Once the sun goes down, the streets of Rimini come alive with lights, colour and noise as the sunbathers of the day become the revellers of the evening.
Sleep
Get out
Rimini is a city in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy and capital city of the Province of Rimini.
It is located on the Adriatic Sea near the coast between the rivers Marecchia (the ancient Ariminus) and Ausa (Aprusa). Coast navigation and fishing are traditional industries and, together with Riccione, it is probably the most famous seaside resort on the Adriatic Riviera, among Italians.
History
Ancient history
Up to 800,000 years ago, primitive man lived in the coastal area as far back as the hillside of Covignano.
In 268 BC at the mouth of the Ariminus river, in an area that had previously been inhabited by the Etruscans, the Umbrians, the Greeks and the Gauls, the Romans founded the colony of Ariminum, probably from the name of a nearby river, Ariminus (today, Marecchia). It was seen as a bastion against invading Gaul and also as a springboard for conquering the Padana plain. Rimini was a road junction connecting central Italy (Via Flaminia) and northern Italy (Via Aemilia that led to Piacenza and Via Popilia) and it also opened up trade by sea and river.
In the sixth century BC, it was taken by the Gauls; after their last defeat (283 BC), it returned to the Umbri and became in 263 BC a Latin colony, very helpful to the Romans during the late Gallic wars.
The city was involved in the civil wars but remained faithful to the popular party and to its leaders, firstly Marius and then Caesar. After crossing the Rubicon, the latter made his legendary appeal to the legions in the Forum of Rimini.
Rimini, which drew the attention of many emperors, Augustus who did much for the city and Hadrian in particular, was experiencing a great period in its history, embodied by the construction of prestigious monuments such as the Arch of Augustus, Tiberius' Bridge and the Amphitheatre and Galla Placida built the church of San Stefano.
Crisis in the Roman world was marked by destruction caused by invasions and wars, but also by the testimony of the palaces of the Imperial officers and the first churches, the symbol of the spread of Christianity that held an important Council in Rimini in 359.
Middle Ages
When the Goths conquered Rimini in 493, Odoacer, besieged in Ravenna, had to capitulate. During the Gothic War Rimini was taken and retaken many times. In its vicinity the Byzantine general Narses overthrew (553) the Alamanni. Under Byzantine dominion it belonged to the Pentapolis, part of the Exarchate of Ravenna.
In 728 it was taken with many other cities by the Lombard King Liutprand but returned to the Byzantines about 735. King Pepin gave it to the Holy See, but during the wars of the popes and the Italian cities against the emperors, Rimini sided with the latter.
In the thirteenth century it suffered from the discords of the Gambacari and Ansidei families. The city became a municipality in the fourteenth century and with the arrival of the religious orders, numerous convents and churches were built, providing work for many illustrious artists. In fact, Giotto inspired the fourteenth-century School of Rimini, which was the expression of original cultural ferment.
The Malatesta family emerged from the struggles between municipal factions with Malatesta da Verucchio, who in 1239 was named podestà (feudal lord) of the city. Despite interruptions, his family held authority until 1528. In 1312 he was succeeded by Malatesta II, first signore (lord) of the city and Pandolfo I, the latter's brother, named by Louis the Bavarian imperial vicar in Romagna. Ferrantino, son of Malatesta II (1335), was opposed by his cousin Ramberto and by Cardinal Bertando del Poggetto (1331), legate of John XXII. Malatesta III, Guastafamiglia (1363), was also lord also of Pesaro. He was succeeded by Malatesta IV l'Ungaro (1373) and Galeotto, uncle of the former (1385), lord also of Fano (from 1340), Pesaro, and Cesena (1378).
His son Carlo was one of the most respected condottieri of the time, enlarged the Riminese possessions to Lombardy and restored the port. Carlo died childless in 1429, and the lordship was divided into three parts, Rimini going to Galeotto Roberto, a Catholic zelot who turned totally unable to the role. The Pesarese line of the Malatestas tried in fact to take advantage of his weakness and to capture the city, but Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, a nephew of Carlo who at the time was only 14, intervened to save it. Galeotto retired in convent and Sigismondo obtained the rule of Rimini.
Modern history
At the beginning of the 16th century, Rimini, now a secondary town of the Papal States, had a local government under an Apostolic Legate (temporal governor in a province of the Papal States). Towards the end of the 16th century, the municipal square (Piazza Cavour), which had been closed off on a site where the Poletti Theatre was subsequently built, was redesigned. The statue of Pope Paul V has stood in the centre of the square next to the fountain since 1614.
In the 16th century, the 'grand square' (now the Piazza Tre Martiri in honor of three civilians hanged by the retreating Nazis at the end of World War II), which was where markets and tournaments were held, underwent various changes. For example, a small temple dedicated to Saint Anthony of Padua and the Clock Tower block were built, giving the square its present shape and size.
Until the 18th century, raiding armies, earthquakes, famines, floods and pirate attacks ravaged the city. In this gloomy situation and due to a weakened local economy, fishing took on great importance, a fact testified by the construction of functional structures such as the fish market and the lighthouse.
In 1797, Rimini, along with the rest of Romagna, was influenced by the passage of the French troops and became part of the Cisalpine Republic. The Napoleonic government suppressed the monastic orders, confiscating their property and thus dispersing a substantial heritage, and demolished many churches including the ancient cathedral of Santa Colomba. On 30 March 1815, Joachim Murat launched his proclamation to the Italian people from Rimini, inciting them to unity and independence. In 1845 a band of adventurers commanded by Ribbotti entered the city and proclaimed a constitution which was soon abolished. In 1860 Rimini and the Romagna were incorporated with the Kingdom of Italy.
An idea of what the city was like in the 19th century is provided by the palaces built along Corso Augusto and in particular by the theatre, which was designed by Luigi Poletti and succeeded in translating into Neoclassical form the ambitions of the ruling classes.
However, the biggest revolutionary element for the city was the foundation in 1843 of the first bathing establishment and the Kursaal, constructed to host sumptuous social events, became the symbol of tourist Rimini. In just a few years, the marina underwent considerable building work making Rimini 'the city of small villas'. At the beginning of the twentieth century, The Grand Hotel, the city’s first important accommodation facility, was built near the coast and soon became the emblem of a new kind of tourism.
During World War II, the city was torn apart by heavy bombardments and by the passage of the front along the Gothic Line but after liberation on September 21, 1944, impressive reconstruction work began, culminating in the explosive development of the tourist economy that created a new urban reality.
Main sights
Night life
Rimini is famous for its nightlife, and is known as the "Ibiza of the Adriatic". The city itself does not have any clubs, but many of its bars have dance floors that are frequently packed. Riccione, the next township, is the place to go for the big clubs.
The city is notable in disco music history for its Cosmic Club who's DJ Daniele Baldelli played records from a moving elevator to the young experimental audience. Baldelli's important contribution to the world of DJing is perhaps overshadowed by his American counterparts, Frankie Knuckles and Ron Hardy.
Transportation
Rimini is provided with six railway stations (Rimini, Rimini Fiera, Rimini Miramare, Rimini Rivazzurra, Rimini Viserba and Rimini Torre Pedrera).
It is served by the Federico Fellini International Airport, airport of Rimini and San Marino.
Famous residents
Sister cities
See also
Sources and external links
