Rimini

The Roman Republic founded the colony of Ariminum in 268 BC at the mouth of the river then called the Ariminus, now the Marecchia, at the narrow point where the coast road meets the Po Valley. Two great roads began here — the Via Flaminia to Rome, whose end is marked by the Arch of Augustus of 27 BC, and the Via Aemilia across the plain, carried over the river by the bridge finished under Tiberius in 21 AD. An amphitheatre for some 12,000 people and wealthy houses such as the Domus del Chirurgo followed.

In the Middle Ages the city passed to the Malatesta family, who rose from the factional fights of the commune when Malatesta da Verucchio was made podestà in 1239. Their most famous lord, Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, a condottiero and poet, hired out his army to pay for the city's embellishment, above all the rebuilding of the church of San Francesco by Leon Battista Alberti as the Tempio Malatestiano. His fortunes collapsed after he was forced to submit to Pope Pius II in 1463, and Malatesta rule ended for good in 1528. Under the Papal States, raids, earthquakes, floods and famine left the city poor, and fishing became its mainstay.

The first bathing establishment opened in 1843, and by the Belle Époque Rimini was a resort for Italian and European aristocrats. The Second World War almost destroyed it: Allied bombing from November 1943, then naval shelling and the Battle of Rimini on the Gothic Line, before liberation on 21 September 1944. Three partisans hanged in the central square that August gave Piazza Tre Martiri its name. Rebuilt, the city became the centre of the mass-tourism riviera that now runs for 50 km from Cervia to Gabicce Mare.

Federico Fellini was born and raised in Rimini, and although he shot his films almost entirely in Rome's Cinecittà studios, the town fills I Vitelloni and above all Amarcord, which won an Oscar in 1975. The Fellini Museum opened in 2021 in the castle, the square outside it and the Fulgor cinema, murals of his characters cover walls in Borgo San Giuliano, and the airport carries his name; he is buried in the city's monumental cemetery.

Music has a long history here: the French composer Guillaume Dufay stayed at the Malatesta court until 1427, and the restored Galli Theatre, reopened in 2018 with performances by Cecilia Bartoli, Roberto Bolle and Valery Gergiev, is again the city's opera house. The city also lives by its events. Every Easter the Paganello ultimate frisbee tournament takes over a stretch of beach; in early July the Notte Rosa fills the whole riviera with concerts and fireworks; and in the last week of August the Rimini Meeting, organised by the Catholic movement Communion and Liberation, brings politicians, bishops and speakers to the Fiera for a week of debates.

Local identity is Romagnol before it is Emilian — the city's name in Romagnol is Rémin — and the Malatesta, Venetian and papal past is everywhere in its churches and palaces. The legend that Anthony of Padua preached to the fish here after the townspeople ignored him is still told.

About 150,000 people live in the municipality, according to the 2025 figure, and around 340,000 in the province. The city is the main centre of a continuous 50 km coastal strip of resorts that grew up with the tourist economy. Tourism has driven the economy since the 19th century, with more than 1,000 hotels, over 220 of them open all year.

Outside the beach season, Rimini Fiera — sixteen pavilions completed in 2001 in the west of the city — and the Palacongressi conference centre keep many hotels open; together they were estimated in 2015 to be worth about a tenth of the province's economy. A fleet of about 100 fishing boats still works from the port, and the hills inland produce Sangiovese and other wines and olive oil.

Residents divide the city into the historic centre inside the walls, the old borghi just outside its gates — San Giuliano, San Giovanni, Sant'Andrea and Marina — the seaside districts along the beach, and newer suburbs spreading towards the hills of Covignano. Life follows the seasons: a quiet winter when many seafront hotels close and the city belongs to its residents, and a hectic summer of late nights, traffic and full trains. Bicycles are a common way to get around on the city's network of cycle paths through the parks laid out along the old courses of the Marecchia and the Ausa.

Rimini's cooking is simple and strongly flavoured, rooted in rural tradition and shaped by its position between the sea and the hills on the border of Romagna and the Marche. The piadina is the constant: a thin flatbread made traditionally with flour, lard, salt and water, and in Rimini thinner than the version found further north in Romagna. It comes with grilled meat or fish, sausages, cured meats, fresh cheeses such as soft squacquerone, and country herbs.

Pasta follows the Romagna pattern: cappelletti, passatelli in broth, tagliatelle, garganelli and strozzapreti, dressed with meat sauce or butter and sage. Main courses include chicken alla cacciatora, rabbit cooked in the style of porchetta, stuffed courgettes and mixed grills; from the sea come grilled mackerel and sardines, skewers of oily fish, cuttlefish with peas, fried squid and gianchetti, tiny fish known locally as "omini nudi".

Sweets include ciambella, the fried fiocchetti and castagnole of Carnival, zuppa inglese layered with custard and savoiardi biscuits, and piada dei morti, a sweet focaccia topped with raisins, almonds, walnuts and pine nuts that is native to Rimini and eaten in November for All Souls' Day. Saba, a grape syrup, flavours desserts. The local wines are Sangiovese, Trebbiano, Pagadebit, Rebola and the sweet Albana.