Rimini, Italy

We arrived in Rimini early in the morning so all the public transportation was closed. This was very disappointing to us because we had gotten very good at navigating trams, busses, subways, trains etc… on this trip. We opted for an overpriced taxi ride and found out later our hotel wasn't much more than a kilometer away from the station. We actually walked back to the station when we left. Not to mention I ran there twice in a snowstorm (yes a snowstorm in Italy, not quite the same as a snowstorm in MN but nontheless lots of blowing snow in my face) because only in Italy do you need your Eurail pass to buy your ticket.

Back to the story, the main reason for heading to Rimini was to see the New Years Eve festivities. I had read in my research that Rimini was a good place to go for New Year's. During the day we wandered around the city without a map and visited the local bazaar as I like to call it. Anna may have been in heaven because she loves purple and trinkets. That is what this bazaar was all about, purple clothes and trinkets. Anna knows this but I absolutely detest trinkets. I would be in heaven if i could have a baseball bat and a bunch of trinkets. This market was huge, merchants were selling everything at this big market. The three basic colors of European style in the winter is purple, black, and grey just in case anybody was wondering.

That night we headed out to the big festivities. Near the Adriatic Sea a very large stage was constructed and by the time we got there, probably 5000 people were already crowding it. The stage had a big countdown overhead and numerous famous? singers put on a show for the crowd. I guess the spectacle was televised all over Italy.

We couldn't really see the stage because of the people so Anna had the brilliant idea of climbing one of the trees. After I helped her into the tree some very eager slight happier than normal (I wonder why J ) young Italians helped me into the tree. From our tree we had a rather clear besides the branches few of the stage. We stayed in that tree for about an hour until midnight hit. We wandered around the festivities for awhile then headed back to the room. I watched some more of the show on tv.

I almost forgot, we ate at this very good authentic Italian restaurant that was also very inexpensive. It took us about 20 minutes to walk to and was definitely off the beaten path but the food was phenomenal. We got there and found out that every table had a reservation on it. Thanks to a very nice Italian lady in the corner she let us sit with her and her husband. Her English was not very good but she still tried to talk to us during the meal. She was really funny and kept raving about how good the food was there.

The food was so good and so was the price that we made the walk back to the restaurant the next night to have ourselves some more italian cuisine.

The next morning it was time to move to our final destination. I have to admit Anna got pretty good at controlling her rolly suitcase by the end.