April 26: Rimini and Valmarecchia

Previous day: April 25: Parma, Modena, or Ravenna

Still staying at Il Cortile del Nespolo. Today we hopped a Freccia Biancha (“white streak”) to Rimini. This is one of the high(er)-speed trains, but not the really fast Freccia Rossa. Took us about 50 minutes, and my friend/colleague Fabio and his wife Elena were waiting for us at the station. He’s a theoretical economist at University of Rimini, and we’ve worked together for going on 11 years. She’s an art teacher and master of fresco. (Two years ago, when we met them in Firenze, she gave us a private tour of some of the best artwork in the city, and taught us all about fresco.)

Our plan was to spend the day with them in Valmarecchia (the valley or the Marecchia river) seeing parts of the country that they love, since (as I told Fabio) the best way to learn about a region is to see if through the eyes of locals who love it. Apart from driving about the countryside and spending time together, the plan was to visit two old hilltop towns, San Leo (close to their house in the countryside) and Sant’Agata. Both were lovely, though in different ways. A little indirect navigation was required because this past winter had been unusually harsh, dropping a couple meters of snow in the mountains (very rare in this part of Italy), and the meltwater had caused many landslides (“frana” = landslide).

Rocca San Leo Cagliostro's cell

The fortress of San Leo, temporary home of the (in)famous heretic Count Cagliostro

I’ve always loved mountains, and Valmarechia is like the best parts of northern Vermont or some parts of the Laurentians north of Montreal: deep valleys with sweeping slopes to rocky or forested hilltops. After San Leo, we stopped in at Fabio and Elena’s house in the country. It’s a very traditional tall, white-plastered Mediterranean house with a red terra cotta tile roof. The walls are very thick and the ceilings range from standard (about 3 m = 10 feet) to very tall (about 8 m = 24 feet), which is a traditional design that’s very effective for the local climate: the thick walls absorb the heat during the day, and any that leaks through into the interior tends to rise to the tall ceiling, thereby keeping the living space cool, and at night the walls radiate the stored heat, keeping the space warm.

San Leo Countryside

Valmarecchia countryside.

The house is on a hillside looking down towards the sea and across to the tiny Republic of San Marino, which covers a hilltop across the valley; it was a bit hazy, but on a clear day, you can see right across the ocean to Croatia. Fabio and Elena live in a flat in Rimini, and they’re renovating the house in their spare time. It’s about 100 years old, and they’ve raised it onto a slab to improve the stability, cleaned up the old stone walls to show off their beauty, and are in the process of finishing off all the details, like installing lighting. They’d done some nice planning for the future, with a place in the concrete slab that supports the lowest level for a decent sized swimming pool.

Lunch was at a place Fabio and Elena like a lot: Agriturismo Palazza Cerella. It was a huge feast made from locally sourced materials. We started with antipasti (salami, thinly sliced prosciuto, cheese, thin bread, apple/cherry marmalade) and really good bread. Next was tortellini in white sauce with basil pesto, with nicely al dente pasta. Next was delicious potato gnocchi, just nicely chewy, in beef ragù. But we weren’t done yet: this was followed by roast pork with crackling, still on the hoof—literally, in one case—garnished with garlic shoots. Then came roast potatoes, and roast beef with something like collard greens sauteed with onions. Finally, gelato with blueberries and espresso. All washed down with a liter of really good San Giovese red house wine.

Agriturismo

Agriturismo Palazza Cerella

One of the things I love about mountains is how the quality of the light changes slowly and subtly over the course of the day. Sit an hour and everything looks different. We didn’t sit very long anywhere, except for lunch, but since we were given the gift of Fabio doing all the driving, we could enjoy the landscape in ways that wouldn’t have been possible if we’d been driving. (In Scotland, where I did most of the driving, we stopped frequently so I could take in the view without having to drive off a cliff.)

We were a little late getting back to Rimini, but since we’d eaten enough at lunch for 2 days, we weren’t going to have to worry about finding a place to eat when we got back to Bologna. Returned by 9 PM, bought tickets for tomorrow’s trip to Perugia, and got to bed at a relatively early hour.

Next day: April 27: Bologna to Perugia