Romagna

I have been to Romagna on a few occasions. The first time, as a child, with my mother and her Fiat 850 Special, during a tour to San Marino we visited the Fiabilandia amusement park near Rimini, then headed to Viserbella to see Mini Italia. The former is a nice park but nothing compared to today's Gardaland, which did not exist at the time: there were the Indian village, the cowboys' village, the stagecoach, a little lake you could navigate on big fibreglass swans, and, lying in an industrial shed, the enormous King Kong from the 1970s film. Mini Italia, on the other hand, was a faithful but miniature reconstruction of Italy's most important monuments, and a far more stylised one of our country's natural beauties. We also passed through Rimini and some nearby tourist resorts. I returned to Rimini in '86 with a friend and my Seat Ibiza, again after a short trip to San Marino.

On that occasion we arrived in the evening and strolled along the main street. On three further occasions I went to the Rimini Trade Fair for work, and on one of these I slept in a hotel and the following morning walked along the beach. Again for work I have been to the Riccione sports hall and also to Faenza, but it was a flying visit. When I was in primary school I went on a school trip to Ravenna to see the Byzantine mosaics that adorned the various churches of the city, Dante's tomb and the remains of the monuments recalling when this was the capital of the Roman Empire! During the same trip we visited the mausoleum of nearby Sant'Apollinare in Classe.