Rimini Tour of the Town

A 'springboard' for San Marino, it was thought 2 nights in Rimini would be enough, I didn't take into consideration this might just be a 'one more night' sort of town.

I had in fact booked the longer stay yesterday, so this morning it was an early stroll along the beach to capitalise. Not dissimilar to Weymouth, only a little more built up

the view in both directions along the beach could have been any sea-side resort in the world.

The main thrust of this early turn and this location, was to check out the Gulls which were as assumed Yellow-legged leading to the first time I'd wished my big lens was at hand. They were all fairly nervous, close approach not being an option, but with better equipment I could certainly have returned home with better shots of these birds of the Adriatic Sea! Never mind, there were other things to see and in an estimated walk of one mile out and the same back there were c19 Black Redstart and easily double that number of Robins.

On some hordings masking a sea-front building site, there were a huge number of photographs from the La Dolce Vita Nightclub and elsewhere locally. I got it into my mind that this one is of the infamous Mandy Rice-Davis & Christine Keeler (circa the Profumo Affair) in company with Patti Harrison (nee Boyd) & Jean (The Shrimp) Shrimpton.

The remainder of the day was spent in the town, both new and old, with much to see. This is

Plazza Tre Martiri

where the 3 days Chocolate Festival was well underway.

Being a FFB it was best not to buy

but from the 'free samples' alone it was soon realised that

this delicious Cacoa, first created in Mexico, was well worthy of a 3 days homage!

Introducing Mr Willy Wonka and

The Chocolate Dollies.

Hail Ceasar

Now this really was worth a half hour stop. Although rather small, this shop stocked some of the great wines of the world including singularly the best I have ever had the privelidge to drink. Yes, there in the window (of all places) was a 1977 Brunello de Montalcino reminding me of the experience with Andrew Lindsay - CHEERS Pal hic*!

Street Scene

Piazza Servi

complete with a very Papal looking statue.

Next leaving the Corso d' Augusto, there is the 14th century Tiberius Bridge crossing the

Town canaland onward to the

Old Town itself

complete with colourful and muralled houses.

Like all the Italian cities and towns so far Rimini is decorated with this wonderful plant which I know from painful experience to be Cycas revoluta. Not rare in the world, and distributed as far afield as New Zealand and South America, I once bought one after a visit to Kew Gardens. Parting company with 200 sobs + delivery the damn thing only survived a matter of months, proving conclusively that my School Leaver's Certificate in Gardening (my only academic atribute) was well worth the effort.

Continuing with some other Town Scenes.

and back to watch the Chocolate Crafting Exhibition. for which I was a little late,

but saw some great examples including World Cup Football, Chess & Formula 1 Racing

and maybe a pile of birds?

The local Jazz Band sent me on my way with an ear full of Basin Street, and I still think the Sousaphone Player was my guitarist mate Robbie MacIntosh?

TIME TO MOVE ON!