Friday, April 1, 2016

We're in Rimini, Italy

Arrived Rimini 4/1 @ 2 PM. 60 degrees and partly cloudy.

Rimini is famous for being a jet set hot spot on the Adriatic. The famous Grand Hotel is still the premier location in season. Right now Rimini is quiet. In about a week things will really start picking up.

We have a small studio designed to make things easy. A huge terrace with extra space helps. Our living area (which is 550') is a bit tight. The design is very clever but ... No more studios.

We have walked about 40 miles of this beautiful ancient resort city dating back before the Romans. The homes are beautiful. The people are friendly and curious to know why American's are visiting since they don't see many. After 10 days, the weather is cooler but the tourists thicker. Heavy on the Italian tourist. Brits, Swiss and Germans will arrive soon. We have done a fair amount of the restaurant scene. So far it falls far short of the fabulous Bologna fare. Maybe that isn't fair because most of the world falls far short of Bologna cuisine.

A good friend of our family, Joe Mazzuca, plays baseball for San Marino which is 20 miles away. Joe was kind enough to invite us to a typical local Italian night out. We ate in Piazza Cavour and had appertivos (think tapas) that come with the beer and wine. Excellent!

From there we headed to Santarcangelo, a small town about 12 miles NW of Rimini, for a truly delicious pizza experience at Antonio's Pizzeria.


We asked Joe to help us negotiate a prescription refill and a shipment of gifts to Chicago
so he once again drove from San Marino to spend time with us getting things done. A big bonus was Joe taking us to lunch at Casina Del Bosco which has the best roast beef sandwich this side of J Alexander's. The Piadina sandwich is wildly popular in Italy now and can be found in dozens of small sandwich shops. It was great to have the very successful eleven year veteran of the Italian League take us to the primo Piadina maker. Don't miss it when in Rimini. We will see Joe again when visiting San Marino in a few days, then again for his home opener the night before we leave.

Rimini has a fabulous Gate to the City which is convenient to the Central Shopping District. There is a Roman Coliseum ruin over 2200 years old. The port is busy and houses a lot of commercial boats as well as a massive fleet of pleasure boats in all the canals and Marina. Not many yachts to speak of as its still in the 60s.

We really like it here. There's great walking for miles along the Adriatic and along the Marina Boardwalk. The area we are in is centrally located so that we can head out in several different directions. Milan, Venice, Ravenna, Bologna, Florence and Ancona are all within 1-2 hours by train or car. Split, Dobrovnik, Radar and Korcula, Croatia are a ferry ride across the Adriatic.

The hotels are very reasonable. A nice 3 or 4 star accommodation with a balcony on the beach will run about $100 per night in high season. The Grand Hotel about $250 -$650. We do love the food.
 It's Italy!

O'Connor overall retirement score is 96.75 Top 15!













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