Friday May 25 - Day 12
We left Venice and took a train down south to the town of Rimini. Today was Dominic's hardest day of the trip. Usually he loved the train rides but today he had a hard day. Teething?
When we arrived in Rimini, we were relieved that our hostel was nearby
and that we had the directions printed off (a detail we hadn't arranged earlier in our trip). We were grateful to have a short walk because tromping around with our heavy bags wasn't very fun. We arrived at a somewhat deserted looking establishment and bumped into the owner as he was about to drive away. Apparently, due to it being the off season and with the downed economy, this hostel was temporarily closed. They had overlooked our reservation. Luckily we had bumped into the owner. Had we been a few minutes later, we would have been locked out of the hostel with no phone, no wifi, and no place to stay, with a cranky baby and very heavy backpacks.
A long story short: the owner made accommodations for us at a different hostel in town and even drove us over (gratefully since it was across town).
After checking in, we grabbed some lunch and headed to the beach. The water was a little cold, but we still enjoyed laying on the sand in the sunshine. That evening we enjoyed some great pasta at a nearby restaurant. We walked around the town for a while enjoying some gelato. We stopped in a little store and the store owner liked Dominic so much, he gave him a little stuffed animal.
Saturday May 26 - Day 13
We took a day trip up to San Marino today. San Marino is a microstate enclaved in Italy. We took a bus up up up until we felt like we were on top of whole country.
We spent all day walking around taking in the sights.
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| One of my favorite pictures of Dominic ever! |
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| Pretty walkways |
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| What you can't see is that I'm standing on a pillar 3 or 4 feet tall---it was a trip to get onto the pillar with Dominic on my chest! |
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| Dominic sized car |
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| Very pretty views |
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| There were lots of cool castles in San Marino |
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| A mini guitar for Dominic! (Look at his little fingers on the strings!) |
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| Another castle |
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| Another castle in the distance |
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| An even smaller guitar! Notice Dominic is singing! |
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| And another Castle |
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| Dominic and I were getting ready to crowd surf. |
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| Beautiful root system and symbolism: these two trees are stronger together with their roots interwoven then they would be independently. I'm so grateful for Michael. |
In the evening, we took a bus back down to Rimini and headed to the city center to check out the sites in town.
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| The Arch of Augustus (built 27 BC!) |
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| Regular exposure so you can see the arch |
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My dad visited Rimini a few years back and was so amazed by the old architecture. It was so cool to see it and share in his enthusiasm.
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I love the warm streets
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| Tiberius Bridge (21 AD) |
The bridge was the only river crossing not destroyed by the retreating German army during the Battle of Rimini (Sept. 1944) and is said to have resisted all attempts of destruction (including the ignition failure of explosive charges!). The bridge is still open to pedestrian and vehicular traffic (excluding really heavy "goods" vehicles). My dad also really liked this bridge so it was cool for me to see it.
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| We headed across the bridge to the other side of town. |
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We walked through the streets following our noses and intuition in search of a place to eat dinner |
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| The result: The BEST pasta we ate during our time in Italy. (notice Dominic sleeping) |
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| Waiting for our food... |
After dinner we started back for the hostel...but not before taking some pictures.
Sunday May 27 - Day 14
Before checking out of the hostel we stopped by the beach for a walk.
After checking out, we caught the bus to the train station and were on our way to ROMA!
We ate such good food during our stay in Rimini/San Marino, but we were really looking forward to Rome, our final stop in Italy before going back to Spain.
