The holiday destination par excellence, Rimini boasts a long tradition of tourism. In 1843, Rimini was the first place to be inaugurated as a seaside resort in Italy. Since then, over the years, the business of hospitality spread from Rimini all along the coastline, from Riccione to Cattolica, Bellaria to Misano.

Rimini's hinterland has also enjoyed progressive tourist development due to its natural beauty, historical landmarks and traditional crafts and cuisine, and is thus an excellent addition to the seaside holiday.

This land is rich in relics from the past, memories of an ancient history that dates back to Roman times.

An Etruscan and Celtic city, a Latin colony in 268 BC, an imperial municipality at the time of Augustus, Rimini was endowed with some beautiful monuments. Later, during the Renaissance, it was the capital of the Malatesta Signoria, and enjoyed the glory of a magnificent court and the presence of the most famous architects, painters and sculptors in Italy. The Arch of Augustus and Tiberius Bridge (both from Roman times: the first marked the end of Via Flaminia, while the second marked the start of Via Emilia), the Malatesta Temple and Sigismondo Castle, as well as all the castles and old churches on the hills of the hinterland, are part of an artistic and cultural heritage worth seeing.

Particularly worth seeing is the Malatesta Temple, one of the most important works from the Italian Renaissance: built in 1450 from a design of the great humanist architect Leon Battista Alberti, this is a fascinating place where pagan and Christian iconography intermingle, with works by Agostino di Duccio and Matteo de Pasti. Piero della Francesca did a fresco portrait of Sigismondo Malatesta, kneeling before Saint Sigismondo. In the apse, you can see Giotto's crucifix. The decorative friezes of the Temple tell the love story between Sigismondo and Isotta degli Atti, both buried in the church.

Another noteworthy church is Sant'Agostino, one of the largest in Rimini, with some of the greatest examples of 14th century School of Rimini on the apse: this artistic movement was one of the most important ones in northern Italy at the time, influenced by Giotto's passage. Of Sigismondo Castle, built in the 15th century by Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta with the cooperation of Brunelleschi, only the imposing central nucleus remains, recently restored and destined for art exhibitions. The castle was designed to be both a palace and a fortress, a worthy domicile for a cultured court and a symbol of power and supremacy over the city.

Must-sees: the City Museum, which preserves the past of Rimini and its territory,  from its geological formation to the modern day, through 1,500 works and records of contemporaries like Federico Fellini, René Gruau, etc. Just a few steps from the Museum, a Roman Age residence has recently been unearthed, called the Surgeon's House, a small Pompei, with beautiful mosaics and an exceptional array of surgical and pharmaceutical equipment, the most abundant in the world to come from antiquity.

Those who love Federico Fellini, born in Rimini in 1920, should stop by the city's cemetery, where they'll find a monumental tomb designed by Arnaldo Pomodoro that remembers the artist and his wife Giulietta Masina.

We also recommend a walk in the characteristic Borgo San Giuliano, with a wealth of trattorias and inns, where you can check out a series of murals dedicated to the film director.

Dante and Rimini:

The Rimini described by Dante in the Inferno is a city dominated by the violence and arrogance of the Malatesta. He described three episodes, each one more tragic than the previous one. The first one: the violent killing by Giangiotto Malatesta in revenge for the double betrayal by his brother Paolo and his wife Francesca da Polenta, who thus became known as Francesca da Rimini in literature--a passionate drama described by Dante in Canto V of the Inferno. But this was also a story of political implications, since the wedding was arranged to create an alliance between the Da Polenta (Ravenna) and the Malatesta (Rimini).

The second story involves Malatesta da Verucchio and his son Malatestino: The cynicism and cruelty they show in killing the Ghibelline Montagna dai Parcitadi (a symbol of the Rimini communal forces), are described in the eighth circle of hell, in the canto of Guido da Montefeltro and fraudulent counsellors: E 'l mastin vecchio e 'l nuovo da Verrucchio / che fecer di Montagna il mal governo, / là dove soglion fan d'i. denti succhio (Inferno, Canto XXVII verses 46-48). In these verses, Dante alludes to the slaughter of the Rimini Ghibellines by the Malatesta father and son, beginning a period of tyranny over the city.

Even the third episode is characterised by an act of Malatesta treachery: the protagonist is Malatestino and, after a meeting held in Cattolica in the early 1300s, he has Guido del Cassero and Angiolello da Carignano killed, the two most representative figures from the town of Fano. Malatestino will have his henchmen drown them off the promontory of Focara, on their way home. The Malatesta will thus expand their power, even though through the use of violence, and Rimini will become the centre of a territorial Signoria with interregional character (including Fano's territories).

In the Purgatorio, Dante changes his tone and speaks of the Rimini of the past: in some terzine, he refers to "buon tempo antico", or the good old times. Instead, there are no references to the city on the Paradiso.