Emilia-Romagna

Emilia-Romagna is a beautiful northern region in Italy.  It's where Fabio's dad and brother live, and we love visiting.  It borders Tuscany, and the landscape is very similar.  Rolling green hills with rows of tall, skinny cyprus trees, medieval villages. Fabio's dad and brother live in a city called Rimini, which is along the coast.  It's a HUGE Italian seaside resort town.  The coast is crammed with hotels and, unlike American beaches, each hotel owns a piece of beach, and the beaches are crowded with chairs, games, dressing rooms, food stands, etc.  It's pretty gaudy, and not really my style, but the surrounding countryside is to die for.  There is so much to see, and because it's NOT Tuscany, it's not over crowded with tourists.

Every afternoon, Fabio's dad and his wife take the ritual nap, so we took advantage of that time to sight-see.  On our drive from Puglia to Rimini, I spotted a walled, hilltop, medieval village.  We looked it up on the GPS, and the next day, we made our way back.  Gradara is remarkable.  It's geared towards tourists, which only bothers me minimally.  It was a cold day, so it was just us, and tour bus of retired Venetians.  (Who gawked over how beautiful Teo was, by the way.)

You can imagine my excitement as we approached the gate!  I mean, talk about stepping back in time!

As you can see from Teo's face, he's not too sure about Pinnochio.

 A view from the castle at the very top of the hill.  The holiday decorations were a nice touch. 

Downtown Rimini was all decked out for Christmas.  It's such a fun shopping area, and has a really sweet Roman gate.

I have always wanted to visit Ravenna.  It's the home of early Christian Era basilicas and baptistries that are laden with the most intricate mosaics I have ever seen.  You can see the apse of this basilica is completely covered in mosaics portraying Jesus, the twelve apostles and Emperor Justinian.

Basilica di San Vitale:

 Inside the Arian Baptistry.  Yes, all mosaics:

 Basilica of Sant'Apollinare in Classe:

Ravenna was suuuuuppper cold, and it was an interesting experience to try and soak it all in with a baby in tow, but I'm so glad I finally got to go.  I'd like to go again, and take more time to learn about the history.

Every time we go to Rimini, we have to visit the principality of San Marino.  It's only 20 minutes away and is this incredible hilltop, medieval town with amazing walls and towers.  This particular day, though, was maybe the coldest day EVER.  The wind was ruthless and we did our best to protect Teo, but he wasn't lovin' it.  We walked around for about an hour, stopped in a warm, cozy gelateria for some gelato (we hadn't had any yet, and we were running out of time at that point) and then headed back to the car.

Oh. My. Goodness.  On our last day in Emilia-Romagna, we drove to a BEAUTIFUL medieval village called San Leo.  Hands down, the most beautiful drive/village I've done in Italy. It was a gorgeous day, there was hardly anyone around.  It was perfect on so many levels.  These two pictures help you get a glimpse of how beautiful this region is:

 In the village of San Leo with the castle on the cliff in the background:

 The views from San Leo were breathtaking:

 I love going inside really old churches.  This one was built in the 1100s.



Oh man.  I'm still feeling the thrill of our day trips in Emilia-Romagna.  There is still so much to see  in the region, and I'm glad we have lots to look forward to as we go back again and again!