25 April 2012: Yesterday we drove to Ravenna, hoping to stay nearby to admire the famous mosaics in town apparently second only to those in Istanbul. Unfortunately this wasn’t to be as we couldn’t find a decent campsite and drove on to just south of Rimini to Riccione where we found a good resting place. There are 15km of shoreline here so this morning we walked into town along a section of the beach in warm bright sunshine for just over ½hr getting our first sighting of a blue and calm Adriatic. The bars and facilities back from the beach front were many and varied, offering every type of beach entertainment for every age group imaginable but fortunately only getting ready for the forthcoming season, not in full swing. We took a bus into Rimini to check out the sights as the old town dates back to Julius Caesar where he made his famous speech about crossing the Rubicon. An intriguing structure in town is the Tiberius Bridge built of white Istrian stone 2000 years ago and still going strong.

On Piazza Cavour is an 18th Century Fish Market, all of the stone counters and the waterspouts for cleaning fish are still there. The area is now lined with fashionable bars that come alive at night. We photographed each other sitting on the old fish counters.

We are off to the hills tomorrow, starting with the Republic of San Marino.