Rimini is one of the best known resorts on the Riviera Romagnola for its welcome, hospitality, entertainment, good food, historical and cultural heritage, and for those who want to spend a peaceful beach vacation.
It is reductive to think that Rimini is only beaches and entertainment: its noisy and beautiful neighborhoods and squares are in fact a continuous discovery, amid enchanting views and archaeological treasures.
Rimini's history is rooted in antiquity, and this, added to its privileged, historically strategic geographic location and excellent regional cuisine, among the most popular in Italy, helps make it a destination worthy of an all-around experience. Founded by the Romans after a victory over the Gauls, ancient Ariminum became an increasingly important center: it is no coincidence that the Romans started two key arteries from Rimini, the Via Flaminia, which still connects it to Rome, and the Via Emilia, which connects it to Piacenza. Here, then, different peoples and dominations have crossed and succeeded one another: from the Byzantines to the Lombards, from the Malatesta to the Venetians. Peoples who left an astonishing trace that can still be admired today in the city's architecture and main attractions, such as the Amphitheater, the Malatesta Fortress, the Arch of Augustus or the Malatesta Temple.
Our staff recommends some must-see places of interest in Rimini:
ARIMINI'S VISITOR CENTER is a multimedia and interactive tour that guides us to discover the city, with its treasures and beauties, and the surrounding area. Just as Ariminum was Caput Viarum primaria in Roman and Malatesta times, the Visitor Centre stands as the Caput Viarum of a cultural and tourist experience, a "magnifying glass" on the cultural beauties of the area and a first introductory stop to the many cultural itineraries and opportunities that Rimini can offer.
Where: Corso D'Augusto, 235
THE ARCH OF AUGUSTUS is the city's symbolic monument. Built in 27 B.C. in honor of Caesar Octavian Augustus, it is the oldest of the surviving Roman arches and stands at the meeting point of the Via Flaminia (which connected Rimini to Rome) and the Via Emilia. Built of Istrian stone, the arch measures 8.84 m with a depth of 4.10 m and a height of 10.40 m. The architecture is enriched with a rich decorative apparatus, charged with political and propagandistic meanings. The opening of the arch, so wide that it could not be closed by doors, recalled the peace achieved after a long period of civil wars. Between the lintel of the arch and the capitals, of Corinthian order, can be seen (in four clypeus) four deities: Jupiter, father of all gods, the greatest deity of the Romans; Neptune, Italic god, of all waters; Apollo, son of Jupiter, protector of health; and Minerva, patroness of the city of Rome, of arts and crafts.
Where: Corso D'Augusto
THE MALATESTIAN TEMPLE is linked to the name of Leon Battista Alberti, who designed its structure and exterior, and to the equally famous names of Piero della Francesca, Giotto, Giorgio Vasari and Agostino di Duccio for the frescoes, paintings and sculptures housed inside. Commissioned by Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta to celebrate his descendants, the Cathedral, formerly a Franciscan church (steeped, however, in even more ancient pagan references and symbols), has remained unfinished but is a jewel of rare beauty: for citizens, accustomed to its resplendent beauty, it is simply "the Cathedral," for tourists a treasure chest.
Where: Via IV Novembre, 35
DOMUS DEL CHIRURGO Open to the public since 2007, the Domus is a small Pompeii resurfaced from the darkness of centuries in the historic heart of Rimini. In the late 1980s, during street furniture work in the central Piazza Ferrari, an archaeological site of extraordinary importance was discovered, with evidence from Roman times to the Middle Ages. In the area, close to the walls of Ariminum, not far from the ancient port, stood the "surgeon's domus," named after the profession of the last owner, a doctor of Greek culture. Destroyed by fire around the middle of the third century, the domus revealed, among the rubble of the collapse, structures, mosaics, plasterwork, furniture and furnishings that offer an exceptional "snapshot" of life in ancient Rimini. It was in this very room that an exceptional surgical-pharmaceutical kit, the richest in the world in antiquity, was discovered. The visit of the excavation area is integrated with that of the Archaeological Section of the nearby City Museum, where the display of materials, preceded by the reconstruction of the taberna medica, documents moments of professional and private life. The Domus can be visited during Museum opening hours with a single cumulative entrance fee.
Where: Piazza Ferrari
The CITY MUSEUM is part of the network of civic museums along with the Surgeon's Domus and the Ethnographic Museum of Looks, which is perhaps the most original of the three and opens the mind to new visions and perspectives. All three of these museums can be considered true time machines: each one will immerse you in another culture or a distant historical period to make incredible leaps in time or space. Designed by architect Torregiani and housed in a former Jesuit convent, in the Museo della Città you will surely be struck by the works of Ghirlandaio or Guercino and take a step back in time, through the splendors of Italy. In the Pinacoteca you will retrace the highlights of the 14th-century Rimini School and the Malatesta Seignory, while in the Archaeological Section you will be catapulted into imperial Rimini.
Where: Piazza Ferrari/Via Tonini
TIBERIO'S BRIDGE was built over the Marecchia River on the initiative of Augustus and completed by Tiberius (14-21 AD). An impressive example of the grandeur of Roman constructions and especially of their enormous technical skill, the five-arched bridge is made of Istrian stone and marks the beginning of the Via Emilia. It is one of the symbols of the city and was built, in Augustus' original idea, with the intention of beautifying the decumanus maximus, the street of the forum, which opened with the Bridge and closed with the Arch of Augustus.
Where: in the northern part of Corso d'Augusto
CASTEL SISMONDO is the majestic fortress of Rimini that stands out in Malatesta Square, with its large square towers and scarp walls. Of the castle, built in the 15th century by Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, only the central core remains. Sigismondo began construction on March 20, 1437. The castle was conceived as a palace and fortress at the same time, as the seat of the court and garrison and as a sign of power and supremacy over the city.
Where: Piazza Malatesta
CHURCH OF SANT'AGOSTINO, originally dedicated to St. John the Evangelist but, erected by the Hermits of St. Augustine, it was always, for the people, the church of St. Augustine. It preserves valuable works of the 14th-century Rimini School. Built in the 13th century in the Romanesque-Gothic style, it is the oldest church in Rimini. The earliest historical record of this church is a deed of gift dated 1069.
Where: via Cairoli, 14
PALAZZO DELL'ARENGO, ancient Palatium comunis, was a symbol of the freedom and established authority of the city government. This was where the Council of the People of Rimini met in the late Middle Ages. It is a majestic Romanesque-Gothic building topped with battlements. The solemn loggia, the scene of much city life and the place deputed to the administration of justice, represents the most authentic part of the building, built in 1204 at the behest of Modio dei Carbonesi, mayor of Rimini, as evidenced by the epigraph still visible on one of the pillars: testifying to the taste that inspired medieval architecture are the capitals still inserted in the pillars supporting the ogival arches.
Where: Piazza Cavour
BORGO SAN GIULIANO is another gem of the city, almost as sacred as a place of pilgrimage, given that the Maestro Federico Fellini was born here. This old working-class neighborhood will steal your soul: the clothes hanging in the windows smell good, and the silence that reigns in the sunny streets brings deep thoughts to mind. Stroll among the murals commemorating the great director, a splendid tribute from his fellow citizens.
THE CHURCH OF SAN GIULIANO already known as a Benedictine church in the 9th century. It was rebuilt in the 16th century. It houses an altarpiece by Paolo Veronese (1588) and in the third altar on the left a polyptych by Bittino Da Faenza (1409).
Where: Borgo San Giuliano
PORTA DELLA GERVASONA - the passage dates back to 1733. The adjacent walls that surrounded Borgo San Giuliano date back to the 15th century.
Where: Via Madonna della Scala
CHURCH OF THE MADONNA DELLA SCALA - was built in 1611 and restored several times. Above the altar is a 1608 painting of the Madonna by artist Alessandro Codrini.
Where: Via Madonna della Scala
THE ARCO DELLA FRANCESCA is the popular name for the Gothic arch that was the entrance to the town by the Marecchia River. It is the only medieval gate still standing, despite being partially buried. In the 15th century it took the name Porta Galliana.
Where: Via Bastioni Settentrionali
