Rimini, Ancona and Foggia, Italy

June 17, 2025 2:56 pm Paula

Rimini

Rimini is home to a 15k stretch of sandy beach along the Adriatic Sea. We were shocked at how long and dense with umbrellas it was. Holidayers were sunbathing, swimming, and enjoying water sports. From our hotel room window, it looked and sounded busy day and night. Rimini has an annual influx of 16.2 million tourists (overnight stays) per year! Great vacation spot for many Europeans.

When we checked into our Rimini hotel, the woman at the desk was excited to see Canadian passports. She left to copy them and poked her head back around and said ‘You’re from Calgary! I lived there for a year!’ She was so excited and it was refreshing to hear her talk about my birthplace.

Included with our hotel stay was a one hour access to the top floor, outdoor ‘spa’. Not only did we have access, we had it all to ourselves! We cycled through the hottub, whirlpool and steam rooms twice and took in the gorgeous view. Energizing!

We strolled along the beach a few times and were amazed at the number of speedos, I mean people; the photos do not do it justice.

We knew the view from the Ferris wheel would be great so I suppressed my fear of heights and off we went. I mean, one go around was doable, right? Try six times around! I had to close my eyes a few times but the view was spectacular. Pretty proud of myself! I had to share that story with our granddaughters right away lol.

It took us a couple of tries to find the old town here; in the gruelling heat. The first attempt was through a park and it was here we realized, Rimini was a cyclists paradise! We started down the right side of the path and within minutes, small and large groups is cyclists whizzed by us, in both directions, narrowly missing us by inches! I don’t know how they didn’t collide with each other or another pedestrian.

We took a wrong turn somewhere and retreated from the Hunt for Old Town for the day; exhausted from the heat. The next day Joe found a different route, around the canal. There were so many fishing boats! 

There was shade too and this made us happy. We eventually found the old town, not where it was supposed to be lol and were amazed at the charming well preserved buildings and squares.

One restaurant on the beach had the cocktail ‘Naked and Famous’ on the menu – my favourite drink! This led to some translated conversations between our server and another gentleman that’s the distributor for Chartreuse (cocktail ingredient). Not only did I get to try another chartreuse drink, but we were treated to a tasting from a rare bottle of mixed green and yellow chartreuse! We had an interesting conversation about how limited Chartreuse is: 12,000 bottles released worldwide annually with only 700 staying in Italy. It was quite the experience for us.

We took a half-day trip to San Marino, an independent city state with its own government, stamps and coins. With a land area of around 61km, it is the 5th smallest country in the world; but ranks among the wealthiest! We were able to have our passports stamped here.

San Marino is a hill town with spectacular views, impressive fortifications, and lots of duty free shopping.

Rimini was a great introduction to the Italian Riviera and it captivated us from the train windows between each of these cities.

Ancona

The city of Ancona sits on a natural harbour, dominating a wide stretch of the Adriatic coast. 

Our hotel was up on a hill and we had a hard time finding it; google maps doesn’t show stairs or hills! This is Joe’s pic of just part of the route up:

But, we got used to walking down and up the hill to explore the city. The hotel had a gorgeous view overlooking the harbour, from all of the restaurants.

The ferry terminal at the port of Ancona has connections to Greece (Patras, Igoumenitsa and Corfu), Croatia (Zadar and Split), Montenegro (Bar) and Albania (Durrës). We would have hopped over to any of those locations in a heartbeat if it weren’t for the 8 hours + sailing time and limited sailing days. Smog from vessels travelling in and out of the terminal was very visible and filled the air.

The bistro view:

The rooftop restaurant offered an 8 course tasting menu we couldn’t resist. Unfortunately, the first 2 courses arrived in one hour increments, and the next six, in 60 minutes. Not ideal, but the food was delicious.

The Cathedral of St Ciriaco, a Roman-Gothic basilica built on the remains of a temple was a spectacular show piece in the city and port. She’s so photogenic!

But it was too far, and too steep a walk from our hotel to the Cathedral, so we took a taxi up and easily walked down.

The (domed) Baroque Church of Santi Pellegrino e Teresa, was built in 1706. Damaged by bombings during World War II and an earthquake in 1972, the church was restored. The church is currently closed due to damage from recent seismic events

Ancona’s historical centre was 20 minutes from our hotel, and is filled with beautiful buildings and great restaurants. It was easy for us to discover it on foot!

The Calamo Fountain, aka ‘the Fountain of the Thirteen Spouts’, was used in 1426 with collection tanks by wool merchants. It is currently not operational.

The Ancona shipyard is a major center for building boats, particularly luxury yachts and custom super yachts up to 95m in length. It is also a significant location for cruise ship construction, an has built numerous cruise ships for Viking Cruises, Regent Seven Seas Cruises, and Silversea Cruises. Fincantieri is currently building the “world’s first” hydrogen-powered cruise ship, in Ancona. 

We had a great time in Ancona!

Foggia

The train ride to Foggia was a glorious 3.5 hours, instead of the usual one. It was so relaxing and scenic!

When we were walking to our BNB from the train station, the streets of Foggia were eerily empty, and nothing was open. Check-in was not ideal; self-check in’s can be a hassle. The stairs to haul the luggage up and down, seemed mountainous. We couldn’t find anywhere to eat. It was 30+ degrees. It wasn’t a great start for our visit here. Luckily the BNB delivered breakfast lol.

Then, in the early evening, we watched out our window with excitement as the evening strollers started to trickle out on to the street. When we joined them around 8pm, it was packed! Everyone strolled happily along our boulevard both nights, stopping to chat with friends and enjoying a warm evening. And they stay out late, even with small children! What a wonderful family tradition!

We realized that smaller towns closely follow the Italian tradition of eating lunch between 1 and 2:30 p.m. and dinner between 8:30 and 10:30 p.m. Many restaurants will open for lunch around 12:30 or 1 p.m. and close the kitchen from 2:30 or 3 p.m. until 7 or 7:30 p.m. Even knowing these times, we had a hard time finding food here.

During WW2, Foggia was attacked on nine times and thousands of homes, the train station, airport, numerous squares and streets were totally devastated and it became a ghost town. Foggia is not considered a tourist destination but it does it have some stunning sites and architecture.

We are now in the heel of Italy’s boot enjoying our tour of Southern Italy.

Thanks for joining us! Paula and Joe

 

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