EMILIA ROMAGNA - The Romagna Riviera

A little History
Forty kilometres of golden beaches, the crossroad of turism in Europe. But today we want to invite you to go beyond this stereotype image by suggesting an alternative itinerary through the towns and villages, the hills and valleys of this angle of Romagna, which is worth a visit, not only for its attractive, natural landscaping, but also for the historic and artistic witnesses which have been left to us by this earth of antique culture. One says, for example, Rimini and you immediately think of the seaside metropolis, of the hundreds of hotels, the lively nightlife, the crowds devoted to the collective celebrations of the sun and sea. The Romagna, instead, offers you the occasion to discover a completely different reality, a town with a beating earth full of memories and sentiments.

You can find yourself as if by magic, admiring the noble, medieval structures of the Palazzo dell'Arengo in front of which are the lively seventeenth century arches of the Pescheria Vecchia, surrounded by friendly, smiling faces. This is Piazza Cavour (see photo), which for seven centuries has been the administrative centre of the town. Here, our forefathers inaugurated a new epoque emerging from dark centuries, without history; here they gave themselves the first statutes of the free community; here an art school was founded and fowered, that of the "Trecento Riminese", which left a significative imprint in the history of Italian art. In the centre of the square there is a fountain from the first part of the Renaissance period, next to which you can stop to listen, as Leonardo da Vinci did five centuries ago, to the harmonious gurgling of the water falling. The story of Rimini is much more antique, as it was a Roman municipal and imperial town. At the two extremities of the urbanaxis, the imposing witnesses of the epoque: the Arch of Augusto and the Tiberio Bridge.

It was from those classical structures that Leon Battista Alberti gained his inspiration much later, rediscovering and innovating them in the full blown period of the Renaissance, when he erected the Malatestian Temple which rised in the ambit of the antique historic centre, too. With the realization of this work of art, the architect was entrusted by the Lordship of Rimini, Sigismodo Pandolfo Malatesta, who in this way was able to leave a reminder of himself not only and not just for his undertaking of war, but also for this which as been defined as th jewel of the Italian Renaissance. There would be a lot to say about this Malatesta family, which ruled for nearly three centuries, always warlike and often opposed, over part of the Romagna and the Marches. To discover the origin of it, you must go up to the valley of the Marecchia (the river which in its final part forms the port of Rimini) to Verucchio from which, at the beginning of the 13th century, the Mastin Vecchio of Dantesque memory moved towards the Adriatic town.

Here, still now there is a powerful castle which from the height of the hill dominates the surrounding countryside all the way to the sea. With fortresses and well equipped towers, the Malatestas covered every elevated point of the region, placed to dominate, control and protect the exposed territory not only in Valmarecchia, down to Santarcangelo and in Rimini, but also to the eastern boundaries of its own dominion in Valconca, where among the other you can distinguish the Castle of Montefiore, a typical fortified summer residence of the gentlefolk of the epoque. But it would be quiker to say that each and every one of the inland towns is worth a visit, for its wonderful position, the medieval urbanistic settings, the tradition of remote memory that you can still breathe.

Antique churches scattered in a fertile countryside of wines and olive trees, where it is possible to taste genuine dishes and to breathe the pure air of the hill; and higher up, on the first heights of the Appennines, to San Leo, with its steep cliff on the plain and the unconquerable fortress set on the top. The recognition in touristic-cultural terms must be made, however, regarding influential areas and epoques which are well distinguishable on the antique chronicle. Here are the Roman, Medieval and modern inscriptions and manufactured products conserved in the Rocca Malatestiana of Verucchio; the witnesses of various periods up to the Roman or high Medieval ones protected in the Museum Exibition of Cattolica, the extremely valuable findings from the point of view of humanistic and natural history of the area, hosted in the Pesa of Riccione and in the Paleontological Collection of Mondaino (there are many wonderful marine fossils preserved there).

Moving on we cannot neglet and forget the manufactured products of the Neolithic Age and the objects of the Villanovian civilzation of the first Iron Age, coming from the necropolis and recovered separately in the areas between Marecchia and Conca. They now form part of the property of the archeological section of the Town-hall Museum of Rimini, with other Etruscan and Roman findings and of the fascinating Archeological Museum of Verucchio. As far as the pictorial witnesses are cocerned, the most significant place is represented by the "Museo della Città" which preserves, among the other works of art, splendid pavimental mosaics, paintings by Bellini and by Ghirlandaio, pieces by the Riminese school of the 14th century and the Venetian and Emilian schools. Just as stimulating is the reality of the territorial and etnographics museums tied to material culture. The best example of these is without a doubt that of Santarcangelo. For whoever wants to look around the treasures of the deep sea, an occasion not to miss is represented by the malacologic collection of Bellaria.