I had been intending to stay in Rimini for a little longer as I have a train booked to Turin on 14th April, but it seems I do actually have the capability to be spontaneous. So spontaneous that I accepted a lift of Jules, my Rimini roommate to Florence. I couldn’t turn down the prospect of a road trip, complete with traditional Italian music in comparison to lugging bags around to the train station, potentially getting lost and enduring a much longer journey. You’d have done the same right?!
Rimini is known as being a cheap holiday destination, with budget airlines providing cheap flights there. On arrival, I could see why – it’s a very pretty town, with a safe and friendly feel to it. The beach is massive and you can walk up the coast whilst enjoying the view. There seems to be a lot of Greek influence in the area as a lot of menus and signs are translated into the language, and the local speciality is ‘piada’ – or in English terms, a wrap. Rimini had a nice town too, and most importantly, was impossible to get lost in as it was so small! There weren’t a great deal of pizzerias or snack bars, instead gelaterias and caffes took over on the eating and drinking stakes.
Check out those skies!
Rimini was brilliant in that it gave me a couple of days of great weather (definitely topped up the tan a little!) and it allowed me to meet Jules and Christine. I’m so happy to have company again, and I’ve definitely come to the conclusion that traveling is better with someone – sorry all you solo travellers out there, but it’s just not made for me. We explored Rimini and went to its local markets – all of which being a heck of a lot more expensive than the ones in the South, with a kilo of oranges being 3 euros compared to 30cents in Palermo!
It just looks like it’s going to be delicious!
We spent one of our days at the beach, eating fresh tomatoes, mozzarella and bread – squirted with truffle oil (oh yes, travellers can live a little luxury too!) and searched out the best pizza and gelato we could find. We did well on the pizza front, in fact I truly believe we did so well that Rimini presented me with the best pizza I’ve had since being in Italy. Cover your ears Mr Napoli, I’m sorry but the pizza I had from Pizza del Secolo in Rimini was light, fluffy, fresh to order and sizzling hot. It may have been helped by its toppings being mushroom and truffles but for only 1.50 euro for a big square slice, I think it wins. The other pizza we had was with scarmorza (a little like a firm mozzarella) and radicchio (chicory leaves). Again, the dough was delicious but I can’t understand why they put flavourless toppings on pizza as that’s essentially what radicchio tastes of – nothing.
Scarmorza and radicchio
The gelato on the other hand wasn’t such of a good find. We stupidly made the decision to opt for the prettiest looking stand, which offered 100% natural, fat free gelato. We should have known on instinct that it wouldn’t be good – gelato is one of those things that are meant to be unhealthy. I went for mixed fruit sorbet and bacio (chocolate and nuts), with some mandatory squirty cream of course. Yes, apparently cream is allowed at this stall… The overall taste was slightly watery and just unsatisfying. I’ve now come to the conclusion that there is absolutely no point in healthier options as it leaves you craving more afterwards, meaning you’re more inclined to eat twice as much. I won’t be doing that again. Fat, sugar, grease here I come – sit back and watch the pizza baby grow!
Fat Free Gelato – um, no!
We ate at a nice trattoria, recommended by a lady at the hostel called Il Logge. Feel free to read the review here as it was a pretty good find, but as usual, the pizza you find at pizzerias is completely different to that you get as an ‘on the go’ snack, and it just wasn’t as good. We also tried the piada, which as I expected just tasted like a tortilla wrap with your choice of filling, and considering as I normally leave the tortilla when having fajhitas (don’t ask), I didn’t rate it highly. Give me pizza any day.
Piada with Schiatticia and Rocket
So now I’m in Florence and phwoar, Rome – get jealous, you’re up for some tough competition. On first impressions, despite being super expensive, Florence is absolutely gorgeous and I cannot wait to explore it some more. Ciao for now!
