Spending a day in Rimini, Italy

Why would I be visiting Rimini?

Rimini, a coastal city on the Adriatic Cost in Northern Italy, is the perfect base for a trip to San Marino, so if you’re aiming to visit this landlocked country you’ll want to start your trip in Rimini. It’s only an hour away from Bologna too, and as it’s also a seaside, touristy resort, a weeks holiday in Rimini isn’t a bad idea if you just want to relax. We spent three days there as part of a bigger trip, but as we visited San Marino for a day and fancied a day of doing not very much in the resort part of Rimini, we only planned on spending a day in Rimini city itself.

We were able to catch the Metromare from behind our hotel, and the electric bus/tram runs parallel to the sea between Riccione and Rimini, turning at the end and taking the same route back. It’s fast, regular and reliable, and a 60 minute ticket, easily enough to get from one end to the other, cost us £1.11. There are also buses running between the holiday resorts and the city centre but the Metromare was so easy for us, we didn’t try a bus. Be aware that the Metromare can get busy so it’s often standing room only, but the journey was so short we were okay with that.

Is spending a day in Rimini enough?

If you want to spend a week here on holiday, swimming in a swimming pool, laying on the beach etc then you’ll have enough bars and restaurants to try as well as nearby Finlandia water park, but if you just want to see the city, use it as a base for San Marino or Bologna or both, a day is enough. I’ve shared the things you can do in a day in the next section, and you’ll still have plenty of time to drink coffee and eat gelato to your hearts content.

What is there to do when visiting Rimini?

We started the day with some of the well known things to see, heading to Arco d’Augusto first for some photos. On the way we went through a few little markets, where I fell in love with a leopard print blazer I didn’t buy, and later went back for-but it had sold. Always buy the thing you want! The roman arch is set in the former city walls and it’s really pretty, and to celebrate the Tour de France coming through the city there’s a big yellow Rimini sign nearby too which makes for a good photo.

After the Arch we walked through the old town taking in the pretty buildings, heading for Piazza Tre Martiri. I’m sure it’s beautiful but when we arrived there was a market taking over most of the square, so we didn’t get to appreciate it as expected. We did have a lovely coffee at one of the restaurants here and took in the atmosphere as the locals were going about their day.

Tempio Malatestiano, Rimini’s not yet finished Cathedral, was our next stop. It’s beautiful inside and out and worth a quick look. I’m not religious but I can appreciate a beautiful religious building and the peace you find inside, and spent a few minutes enjoying the ambience before setting off to our next stop, Parco XXV Aprile, which is where Rimini’s parkrun is. J considered doing the parkrun on the Saturday morning but as we had to check out at 10:30, the timings didn’t work-a shame because the park was beautiful. I very much enjoyed the fish in the lake.

Just past the park, over a beautiful bridge, is the neighbourhood of Borgo San Giuliano, which is filled with street art themed around the area-lots of sea themed bits here, all painted on the walls of the pretty houses, and well worth a stroll through. We didn’t do this, but if you love street art, Rivera Rimini is worth looking at too, it sounds amazing.

We ended our day with a walk down past the marina to the sea front. A walk along the stone pier was lovely but hot, and we’d planned to stop somewhere for a drink but the bar on there was closed for an event. We spent 15 minutes on the Rimini Wheel, which cost £17 for both of us-it was okay, but I’ve definitely done better wheels with better views and wouldn’t recommend this one specifically.

J had spotted mini golf so we spent just under £30 on both of their 18 hole courses, which took an hour or so to get around. Again, whilst it was alright I’ve done better courses so unless you’re really into mini golf or really want an activity I’d give that one a miss. (We also got bitten so much during this, which probably has influenced my opinion!)

Near our bus to get back there’s a big ‘Rimini’ sigh opposite the Grand Hotel-where director Fellini was known to hang out. We did intend to go inside for a drink but weren’t sure if we would, so we settled for photos and admiring the grounds through the fence instead, before leaving to catch our bus back. We also made sure to have a look at the large camera just across the road, leading to this very on brand photo of me.

Where can you travel to after spending a day in Rimini?

The most obvious place to visit after Rimini is San Marino. Bologna is an hour away, and Venice, our next stop, is three and a half hours on the train from Rimini. You can also catch trains from Rimini Central Station to Turin or Milan, making it a great place to start a multi city Italy trip if that’s your thing.

Have you been to Italy’s Adriatic Coast? Would you consider Rimini?