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A tourist empire has been built in my region since after the war, and to anyone who asked what to do in Emilia-Romagna, anyone would answer: organized beaches and discos.

The anecdote I tell in this article is perhaps a bit of a stretch, since it really happened close to my home. But after all, to travel you don’t need to go far, and besides, it’s too much fun.

Thanks to the ability to access new destinations that were once difficult if not impossible to reach, since the 2000s things have changed. Now we are no longer the home of tourism; although especially on weekends many people continue to come here. Whether I may like the genre or not, I know I am fortunate to have always lived in houses from which I could walk to the beach.

I also don’t deny my disco years. I used to ride my bike to clubs or even go around 3 or 4 a night without paying, and you would even go in just to pee.

But today if I have to say good reasons to visit my region, I point to nature walks (Apennines and pine forests) and art cities/villages.

What to do in Emilia-Romagna? Go to the sea, some

For a lifetime I went to the beach for entire summers and every day. Both in Rimini and Cervia where I grew up and now, I could always go there by bicycle or even on foot.

I remember so fondly my grandfather taking me, loading me onto the bike cannon, to the San Giuliano area in Rimini, where the marina is now. As a teenager until I graduated from college, I experienced the beach as a seasonal worker. I was a lifeguard or a bartender in the bathing establishments; here the anecdotes were many and varied, but they certainly had nothing to do with travel.

Now I don’t tolerate the crowds much, much less the heat; in fact, I almost only go there in the early morning or late afternoon. Particularly at the free beach in Classe, before which there is a small piece of pine forest, still beautiful even though it is basically a long avenue with beach accesses all the way to the mouth of the Bevano River. Called Bassona, it is also famous for the small nudist area. This beach with the pine forest behind and some dunes is light years away from the stereotype of what everyone imagines they find in Romagna. Having it very close I sometimes go just for a hop and a dip.

What happens if you take a bath with your glasses on

That afternoon I had just an hour or so, I had been working on the PC for several hours and I had prescription glasses on. Usually if I have to be outdoors a lot in the sun I wear contact lenses. I went into the water with my glasses on(without them I couldn’t tell the difference between a whale and a mermaid). Concentrated and holding them tightly in my hand I put my head underwater a first time. Probably distracted by my travel plans, the second time, after I had put them on my head, the current took them off. Sandy bottom with sea u n a bit rough, I blinded, it was impossible to see them. I tried feeling with hands and feet, hello. In the following days I pathetically went back there, even asking the lifeguards.

Unusually, I was in the car, where I would find the spare glasses. The road is straight, I would have easily made it to the parking lot. However, I would not have been able to recognize anyone because of my super myopia.

So to avoid the foolishness of someone known who might greet me and me not spotting him, I immediately took one of the less traveled lanes through the pine forest and from there to the parking lot.

I guess I led her on

I saw in front of me a figure that could have been a girl and she turned around a couple of times to look at me; I followed her about twenty meters away keeping my head down to avoid butting my feet against some rocks. The path entered the pine forest and at a bend I lost sight of her, but soon after there she was crouched before me in the middle of the path. Within moments I wondered why she had not taken advantage of one of the thousand available places and chosen to pee right there, even though she knew I was behind her!

Immediately taking a detour, I said: sorry, but I can’t see anything because I lost my glasses

A male voice attempting to come across as female speaking in a comical falsetto: no, but come on in, you can look if you want to

Thank you, you are very kind, as if you accepted

Next stage together of travel

What to do in Emilia-Romagna? Look for a place mentioned by the Rolling stones

A river in Romagna, the Rubicon where Julius Caesar apparently uttered the famous phrase alea iacta est, is mentioned in the following famous song by the Rolling Stones. Streets of love (at minute 1.18). But many people don’t know that it is actually not certain that Caesar actually passed through the Rubicon or even the Pissatello. It always makes me laugh to think of how Mick Jagger might pronounce the latter.

Trips taken, travel stories divided by continent

Countries visited in my travel stories

Anecdotes, divided by type in travel narratives

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Fabio Viroli

Ho sempre avuto tante passioni, ma da sempre più o meno latenti, le principali sono viaggiare e scrivere. Tra le altre cose ho una laurea in psicologia; ho fatto per più di 30 anni l’allenatore di basket; leggo tanti libri; sono stato molto appassionato di sport e di musica rock; e faccio improvvisazione teatrale

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