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Published: February 25th 2023
Dear All
Greetings, or saluti! I have just returned from my final mini-trip of this winter period of travel, having seen my last one of Europe's micro-states. My theme for these last couple of months has been to visit my three remaining European micro-states, out of six in total. I had already been to the Vatican, Andorra and Malta, and this February half-term after having visited Monaco and Liechtenstein over the Christmas holidays, I was heading to San Marino! Well, in actual fact, I was heading to Bologna, to first take a train to Rimini for a couple of nights, then on to San Marino for two more, before my final night in Bologna. This is my first of two blog entries relating my time there, and will recount my adventures in Rimini at the beginning of my trip, and Bologna at the end. My next blog entry will be all about amazing San Marino (I had a great time there!).
So yes, on a Saturday morning, I was heading to Luton Airport for my Ryanair flight to Bologna - I had not flown Ryanair for quite a while, and since one of my previous experiences with them left
Rimini Port
Rimini, Italymy stranded in the Dutch city of Eindhoven due to a cancelled flight caused by fog, and then having to make it back to London again by car, train, another train, bus then tube (I think 14 hours in total, with no compensation from the airline), I was understandably a bit nervous about flying with them again. I may be naive enough to think that the airline industry could have improved their standards a bit since this incident, which was around 18 years ago, and that online booking and mobile apps may have improved the service you get from these airlines, and hope not to be proved wrong on this. In fact, my flights both there and back were a breeze, although the flight there ended up being an hour late - no biggie really, just as long as it wasn't cancelled!
We landed in the evening, and straight away I was reminded of the oh-so-Italian way of "queuing", which is anything but organised, as well as their penchant for bending a rule or two here and there. As we disembarked the plane, a not-so-friendly lady barked us into just one line for the passport control - there was
an empty line next to us, and a couple of the passengers (Italian, not English, surely...?!) ducked under the ropes and headed straight to the front of the other lane, as the lady shouted at them. No-one else did this after the shouting at, and we all remained in this one very long queue, which I was glad to be at the front of. When called up by the security lady, she asked me where my children were - confused, she told me I was in the "family queue", although looking back on it, everyone was. She rolled her eyes and stamped my passport before shooing me away. I could have been peeved, but in fact found it all very amusing, and lovely to be away from some of the rigidity and orderliness of life in the UK (although I still much prefer the British way of queuing).
Because of our late arrival, I missed the direct 6.30pm Bologna Airport to Rimini bus which I was aiming for. With the next one being around 9.30pm or so, I opted for Plan B, which was to take the funky little airport monorail 8 minutes or so into Bologna Centrale Station,
and then take a regional 1.5 hour train to Rimini from there. The station was heaving, and I really felt that sense of awe one gets when arriving somewhere new - the Italians are a red-blooded and exuberant people, and the station was buzzing with their loud voices, laughter and beautiful language. It was lovely to be back again!
My first time in Italy was 20 years ago, in the very very hot summer of 2003, when I taught English at a seminary in Rome for a month, before travelling through the country for a further two weeks, and then on to Greece and Turkey. I had not long since finished a Geography degree, in which I took an advanced course in Italian as one of my course units for my final year. I had thus pretty much got to a very good level of Italian, which I have had little chance to practise again since - there are not that many countries in the world where Italian is spoken! I had since been again to Italy for a short weekend trip to Venice to attend the wedding of a Spanish friend of mine who wedded an Italian girl
(hi Chele, if you're reading this!), but that's been about it. Thus, for the last couple of months, I'd been brushing up on my Italian, and was so excited to be speaking it again - it's a language that I really enjoy speaking, especially when you do the proper Italian accent making vowels loud and consonants strong, although I'm not so confident on all the hand gestures!
The train was full, and it made its way along the 70-mile journey to Rimini through the dark - I find it a little unsettling to arrive in a new country in the dark to be honest, just because you cannot really get a feel for it until the next morning when it's light again, so the first night is always a bit of a mystery! This was also a seriously boring train journey, as both the train track and the road go in a directly straight line between the two cities, following diagonally the north-eastern edge of the Apennines in this part of the country. There was nothing to see out of the window but blackness, and just one long rail line with no interesting curves or tunnels. I instead took
my enjoyment from observing the Italian people getting on and off the train, and being mesmerised by their beauty and being in this country again - I just love everything Italian! After arriving at the train station, it was a very short walk to my hotel a stone's throw away, and I stopped off at a very cheap and good Chinese restaurant just opposite for a lovely takeaway to enjoy in my cosy little room before heading to bed for a well-deserved, and very good, first night's sleep on this mini Italian adventure. I was looking forward to exploring the next day.
After a great night's sleep and hearty Italian breakfast, I headed to the train station again ready to begin what I had planned for the day - this turned out not to happen, and I actually realised I don't mind it when these things happen. Plans often change while travelling, and I think I've learnt to accept this and to go with the flow, as whatever anything leads to always seems to be have been the right thing in the end. I've also learned that I have a tendency while travelling, that as soon as I arrive
in one place, I start to look at travelling to another rather than spending time exploring where I already am. I was initially planning to spend this day in nearby Ravenna, an hour away to the north of Rimini by train, but found that Italy, like the UK, is also having its fair share of strikes at the moment. On this day, Italian train drivers from the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy were going on strike, and thus regional trains like the one I was aiming for were cancelled. There were trains to Ravenna only every hour or two, and I really didn't want to end up stuck there, as there were no buses between the two.
When I found out the first train was cancelled, I had two hours before the next train, so decided to explore Rimini itself. What a beautiful city! On the one hand, Rimini is Italy's summer party destination, and in the summer its huge beach ten miles long and 200 metres wide is packed to the gills with sun-seekers from mainly Italy itself, but also a sizeable number of Russian tourists, though I doubt that many recently. On the other hand, it is also
a historic city in its own right, and was once an important Roman port called Ariminum dating back to the 3rd century BC. I set about exploring its beautiful town centre, and on this Sunday was surrounded by hundreds of Italians and families going on their Sunday walk - this is something I love about both Italy and Spain, just the fantastic street atmosphere, and people going for walks saying hello to their neighbours, even late into the evening - it's all very amicable and safe compared to English cities at night. I stopped by the 13th century Tempio Malatestiano Saint Francis cathedral, the central Piazza Tre Martiri, the Arco di Augusto built in 27 BC, the ruins of a 2nd century Roman amphitheatre, and the exquisitely beautiful 1st century Tiberius Bridge over the Rimini Canal. All were exceptionally beautiful, and I was happy to be exploring the historical heart of this comparatively little-known Italian city. Whilst at the Roman amphitheatre, I was reminded again of the typical Italian way of being flexible with the rules. The waist-high gates to the site were padlocked, but I just hopped over them and explored the place at my leisure. I noticed a
couple of other people walking their dogs doing the same. If this were England, I'd be expecting some authority or other to shout at me for doing this, or for there to be CCTV cameras, but here it seems a padlocked gate doesn't stop a local, and it certainly didn't stop me exploring a Roman amphitheatre - when in Rome, as they say!
Heading back to the train station, I found out the next train to Ravenna was also cancelled, so I made the very quick and wise decision to leave this visit to the Italian city famous for its mosaics, and spend the rest of the day exploring Rimini and around instead. It was a wonderful decision, and I had a lovely, very authentic day. Next to the train station, there was a trolley-bus line called the "Mare Metro" which plied the Rimini coast between there and a more upmarket resort town to the south called Riccione, so I hopped on it eager to explore, and excited as I knew nothing about where I was going nor had I planned it - I was just going with the flow!
Riccione turned out to be a lovely resort
town, rather swish and tidy with a fair number of people around despite it being the off-season. I had a delicious pizza lunch in a pavement restaurant, ordering a Buffalo cheese and mozzarella pizza, so enamoured with the proper Italian way of making pizza! I then enjoyed a lovely beach walk - although it was sunny, it was cold and fresh, and during my whole time on this mini-break it dropped below freezing each night. The beach was thus beautiful and refreshing, and again many happy Italians and their families were enjoying themselves there too. After this I took the Mare Metro again back towards Rimini, stopping off at a place called Miramare as it sounded like another beach resort centre. This place was far more downmarket, and actually quite cool, though there was a bit of an edge to it. I'm glad I had my lunch back in posh Riccione. After another fresh beach walk, I hopped back on the Mare Metro once more back to Rimini, to enjoy the evening and sunset heading out to its own stretch of beach and headland jutting out a mile away from the centre of town. Again, the place was buzzing with
people having fun, and thus far on my trip I had noticed a number of local people dressed up in fancy dress. Here, on the way out to the headland, I came across two friendly-looking ladies dressed up, and after requesting a photo with them, learned that this weekend was Carnevale! Venice was definitely the place to be for this, but down here in Emilia-Romagna a fair number of people were also celebrating it too, and I was glad to have finally learned why there were so many people dressed up!
As the sun was setting over the mountains inland, I spied in the distance the very distinct outline of Mount Titano, the mountain upon which the tiny republic of San Marino was founded, and became excited about the following day, in which I was to make it my 87th country. I will write about my time there in my next and final blog entry on this mini-trip, but for now I will continue with my time in Italy itself, which after two nights in San Marino, I was to spend a final night in the regional capital of Bologna.
I had actually visited Bologna very briefly during
my two-week trip around Italy in 2003, spending a few hours there in transit between Venice and Genova. My travel journal notes "nice city, though not much to see". I guess compared to places such as Rome, Venice, Florence and Naples that I had seen thus far on that trip, Bologna must have been a bit of a downturn. I really enjoyed exploring it this time though. In 2003, I remember meeting a friendly guy called Rigobello, who I struck up a conversation with as he was washing grapes in a fountain - not your average thing one does! It turned out he was from Turin, and when I stopped off in that city later on in my trip we met up and he drove me around the sights in his car. I do miss those days of travelling, when these kinds of things seemed more commonplace - or perhaps it's me getting older, I'm not really sure...! Anyway, I was hoping to be able to find that fountain where I met Rigobello washing his grapes, and I think I did find it - the Fontana Vecchia on Via Ugo Basso. I really enjoyed my time in Bologna, and being
Amphitheatre
Rimini, Italy able to see it without comparing it to Italy's grandest of dames, it was a real charmer I thought, and held beauty around every corner, not least in the sheer number of porticoed pavements throughout the whole of the town centre - I think there were more porticoed pavements than not. It's also famous for the amount of red buildings there, earning itself the nickname "Bologna La Rossa", or "Red Bologna", as well as being the home of Italian engineer Guglielmo Marconi, entrepreneurial car legend Ferruccio Lamborghini, and everyone's favourite pasta meal, spaghetti bolognese! In actual fact though, the meat sauce is not actually called this there, but "ragu" instead, and the pasta it comes with is not spaghetti but rather tagliatelle. So be sure to order "tagliatelle al ragu" and not "spaghetti bolognese" in a restaurant there if you don't wish to be laughed at!
Getting to Bologna from Rimini, I took the return journey by train again along the monotonously straight line, on an even busier train than last time - they sure like to train travel in this country! This time I could see outside the window though, being in the middle of the day, and
noticed the seriously flat country all around, with the exception of the south-western horizon which was permanently lined with gentle rolling hills all the way, the foothills of the Italian Apennines which split the country in two right down from Genoa in the north-west to the tip of the Italian boot's toe in the south. The train was travelling along the very edge of the massive River Po floodplain, upon which are found northern Italy's most important cities, including Milan, Turin, Venice and of course Bologna, population around 400,000. The train station was as hectic as when I'd first arrived, and I walked the half-mile or so through the powerful streets of the city to my accommodation, lined with the majestic porticoes and large buildings - it felt stately and monumental compared with relaxed Rimini and peaceful San Marino. It felt good to be back in a real city again, with smartly dressed Italians in suits and high-heels on their way to work meetings, stopping by at espresso shops along the way - this felt quintessentially Italian. I checked into an accommodation which was an apartment all to myself, more of an Air BnB place but actually booked on booking.com,
with a bedroom, dining room, kitchen, bathroom and a cute little terrace where I spent a few happy times observing Italian street life below. It was a really authentic place to stay, although the building was hugely noisy, and the clanging of the ancient elevator was very noticeable in the evening and morning - thankfully it was quiet at night though, and I slept really well there.
After a short rest in the apartment, I spent the rest of the day exploring the beautiful streets, squares and buildings of central Bologna. After finding the Fontana Vecchia and reminiscing about my previous time in the city, I took in the beautiful Neptune Fountain in grand Piazza Maggiore, its adjacent clocktower and absolutely massive, both inside and out, Basilica di San Petronio. I then headed towards the city's star drawcards, "Le Due Torre", also known as "The Two Towers" or "The Twin Towers". As well as being Red Bologna, it is also known as the City of Towers, when in the Middle Ages there were over 100 of these structures, only 22 of which remain today. Some believe it to have resembled a medieval kind of Manhattan in its day, as
Piazza Cavour
Rimini, Italy wealthy landowners sought to show off their wealth and stature by erecting these monuments on their land. The two most famous of these are the "Twin Towers" of Asinelli and Garisenda, standing right next door to each other. Asinelli is 97 metres tall, while Garisenda currently stands at 48 metres. The latter was once 60 metres high, but had to be lowered in the 14th century as it began to lean dangerously. In fact, both towers today lean, the former leaning at 1.3 degrees while the latter a very noticeable and whopping 4 degrees, that's more than the Leaning Tower of Pisa at 3.99 degrees! Standing right beneath them and looking up gave me an impression of the Twin Towers of New York, and I could see that with 100 of these things, the city could very well have looked like a medieval Manhattan in its day. I then headed back to my apartment through the city's university district, feeling a little old among the young student population, and finally passed its very small Venice-like district of two canals called Finestrella, before getting a really wonderful night's sleep.
For my final day on this little trip, I had pretty
Piazza Cavour
Rimini, Italy much the whole day to play with, as my flight back to London wasn't until 6.50pm that evening. After checking out at a delicious 11am, enjoying my wonderful lie in with all that apartment space, I took a bus to the south-west of the city, and then another bus, a little minibus this time, up the slopes of Montalbano, the hilly area just outside the city. My destination was the Sanctuary of the Madonna of San Luca, a beautiful ochre-coloured 1723 basilica dedicated to the Virgin Mary on a site that was initially established as a small chapel in the 12th century. Between 1674 and 1793, an amazing 3.8km, 666-arched (interesting number!) portico was built connecting the Catedrale di San Pietro in central Bologna to the sanctuary, so that an icon of the Virgin could be carried completely sheltered from the centre of town to this hilltop site. A local pilgrimage involves walking this route oneself, uphill to the sanctuary and then back down again. I took the easy option by catching the minibus up, and walking back down part of the way, around 1.5 miles, to the main road again to catch a bus back into town. The basilica
itself was beautiful, and afforded wonderful views southwards into the rolling hills of the Apennine foothills, and northwards through the hazy sunshine air towards Bologna. I paid a small fee to climb the steps to the basilica's dome, for even more wonderful views, before heading down the pilgrimage path, passing a number of locals in fitness gear clearly doing this route regularly.
At the bottom, there was a very quaint little Italian restaurant called Trattoria Meloncello, which actually seemed to be quite popular with famous Italian people - amongst its numerous signed autographs adorning its walls, I only recognised Italian "popera" group "Il Volo" who came second in the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest with an amazing song called "Grande Amore", a song which became one of my most played on my MP3 Player during this little trip. I felt honoured to be in a place where some of my very few known Italian famous people had been, though was a little disappointed not to find Laura Pausini or Nek...! My barber back in London (hi Tony, if you're reading this!) is actually Italian, and recommended I try either "Tagliatelle al Ragu" or "Tortellini in Brodo", two quintessentially Bologna dishes,
while in the city. Since I had only one lunch left on this trip, I requested a combination of the two, and instead ordered "Tortelloni al Ragu" - this became a little confusing as "tortelloni" are slightly different to "tortellini", being larger and filled with meat and cheese. The ragu, or bolognese sauce, was just delicious, but I'm not sure it went with the meat- and cheese-filled pasta, and I felt a bit stuffed and rather queasy for the rest of the day! I'm not sure it worked, but anyway I tried, and I at least can say I had both next time I get my hair cut!
All that was left really was a bus back to Bologna Centrale, and then onto the airport again, where my Ryanair flight was on time, and I had a smooth (figuratively speaking at least, as in fact it was a rather turbulent one!) flight back to London Luton. Despite being completely on the other side of London to me, the direct train connecting Luton Airport Parkway and East Croydon station meant that plane-door to front-door was just over two hours this time - quite amazing!! Gatwick is about an hour, and
Rimini Canal
Rimini, Italy Heathrow usually gets on for three. I think I've found my second favourite London Airport!
So, after an amazing time in Italy and San Marino, my micro-states of Europe are now complete! I will surely be writing up about my time in San Marino in my next one, but just to close this one I have a few more trips lined up in the coming year ahead. First up, another trip to the US of A in only four weeks time!! At the end of March, I fly to Florida, to explore some amazing places from Tampa to Miami, and everywhere in between - I'm excited! I'm also looking forward very much to meeting up with my fellow Travel Bloggers while there (hi Merry Jo and Dave, if you're reading this!).
So until then, thanks for reading, and all the best for now!
Alex
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Andrea
Micro Europe
I’ve popped back in on this site and lo and behold you are out traveling and blogging!! Seems I’ve missed a few, will need to catch up. And now you are headed for USA? Fantastic. Say hello to MerryJo & Dave for me! Glad to see you are well and doing life grand.