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The secret seaside escape where Italians have been holidaying for years

The secret seaside escape where Italians have been holidaying for years

Independent3 days ago

Cycling along a path fringing the Adriatic Sea, I pass families entering a play park and older couples walking hand in hand. The pedestrianised 'park of the sea' is a quiet spot for a morning stroll, but it also turns into a lively night-time destination after dark.
What once was a road and car park is now a path curved like the waves of the sea which will stretch to 15km when construction is finished next year.
Rimini, a city in northern Italy's Emilia-Romagna region, has for a long time been a favourite coastal resort for Italians of all generations. Some families have been choosing the same beach spots for decades, my tour guide Monia Magalotti tells me.
Now it's much easier to reach the destination from the UK with the launch of new British Airways direct flights from Heathrow, just in time for the summer.
About 150 beach clubs line the path, along with restaurants, parks, gyms and more.
But after leaving the path, crossing a road and then cycling for about 10 minutes, I'm surrounded by a mix of brightly coloured quaint buildings with shutters covering the windows that could have jumped out of a fairy tale.
This is traditional fishing village Borgo San Giuliano, a popular area for restaurants, with tables overlooking the river.
Monia says it's Rimini's hospitality that keeps people coming back here as opposed to better-known Italian destinations.
'It's about people being welcoming and kind and opening their arms. Even if you sit in a restaurant, you don't feel like a guest – you feel like part of the town, of the atmosphere, which is so authentic here,' she says.
At Nud e Crud, I try Emilia-Romagna 's traditional piadinas, soft fresh flat breads with a choice of fillings. Tomato, mozzarella and basil (€9.90/£8.30) takes my fancy but next door I see one with grilled chicken, tzatziki sauce and chips inside. I'm stuffed but there's always room for dessert so I go for tiramisu (€6/£5), and a spoonful of zuppa inglese (€6/£5).
In the surrounding streets, there are several murals of director/screenwriter Federico Fellini and characters from his films.
Two museums are dedicated to the filmmaker who was born in the city. In one, you can sit on swings as images play, or rest on a sofa which is actually a giant sculpture of Anita Ekberg's character Sylvia from La Dolce Vita.
Another striking Rimini building linked to Fellini is the Grand Hotel Rimini, built in 1908 and said to be where he would stay when he was in the area.
The hotel's huge white façade is eye-catching both in the day and lit up surrounded by greenery in the evening. The property has hosted celebrities, politicians and royalty such as Diana, Princess of Wales.
I visit for an evening meal in the restaurant, where I'm served a fish and shellfish salad, followed by seabass with artichoke and squid, then a lemon and chocolate mousse with passion fruit (mains around €26/£21.80).
Beyond the city, there are a host of different day trip options a short distance away, including Ravenna – which was visited by the King and Queen in April.
The town is home to eight UNESCO monuments, Italian poet Dante Alighieri's tomb and Museo Byron, a new museum housed in Palazzo Guiccioli, where Lord Byron stayed with his lover Teresa Gamba and her husband Count Alessandro Guiccioli from 1819 until 1821.
This was possibly the longest time the British poet spent in one place in Italy, and in Ravenna he 'had a home and a family – a very peculiar family', Professor Diego Saglia, who helped set up the museum, explains.
He came with all his animals and his daughter, and became a tenant of the Count, at the same time as being his wife's lover.
The Queen – who is known for her love of books – visited the Byron museum, and Saglia tells me that after an official reception in the courtyard with speeches, they went inside the museum and Camilla 'could not be dragged out again'.
One of the objects selected to be shown to the Queen was a travel case belonging to Teresa. A wedding gift for the marriage to her husband, she used it to collect items relating to Byron, including letters and locks of hair.
A short walk from the museum is the octagonal Basilica of San Vitale, which dates back to the 6th century. It is home to striking and remarkably well-preserved glass mosaics and was visited by the King in April.
About half an hour from Rimini by car is San Marino, a microstate within a medieval walled town. Granted independence at the time of Italy's unification, it's the fifth smallest country in the world with only 33,000 residents and still requires a passport to enter.
The city sits hundreds of metres above sea level, and has a number of restaurants with views looking down across the land below, stretching to the sea.
Daniel Terranova, manager of a hotel group which includes La Terrazza, a restaurant with views of rolling hills and the parliament building, says the funny thing in San Marino is he can pick up the phone and call the Prime Minister and tell them about his problems – not something you can do in many countries.

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From fast-track airport passes to setting a budget: five top tips for a stress-free holiday
From fast-track airport passes to setting a budget: five top tips for a stress-free holiday

The Guardian

time7 hours ago

  • The Guardian

From fast-track airport passes to setting a budget: five top tips for a stress-free holiday

The excitement of setting off on holiday can't be beaten. But it's not without its stresses – long lines at security, airport parking and currency confusion can all create a hectic start to a trip. However, a few key tricks can make all the difference to your travels, and allow you to kick off your trip in style. Here's how you can upgrade your own holiday. If there's one thing you can be sure of, it's that going on holiday is going to cost you money. But whether you're planning a budget city break or a once-in-a-lifetime adventure, it always pays to think about how you can make your everyday spending work for you. One of the best ways to do this is by getting a credit card that allows you to accumulate points as you spend. For example, the Barclaycard Avios Plus credit card* gives you 25,000 Avios – the currency of the British Airways Club – if you spend £3,000 in your first three months, and 1.5 Avios for each pound you spend on eligible purchases (all for a £20 monthly fee). How you spend your Avios is up to you. You could use them on flights to your next dream holiday or on extras such as cabin upgrades, hotels, car hire, experiences, and more. Alternatively, if you are a Barclays Premier Banking1 customer, Barclays Avios Rewards2 can help you collect at least 1,500 Avios every month, and offers perks such as an Airport Lounge Membership with Assurant and DragonPass. You could also receive a 25,000 Avios joining bonus3 if you're opening your first account and complete a full switch using the Current Account Switch Service within three months. And if you regularly fly with British Airways or partner airlines, keep an eye on your current Avios balance – it might already be higher than you think! *Representative example. 80.1% APR representative (variable); purchase rate 29.9% p.a. (variable); based on a £1,200 credit limit; monthly fee, £20. The approval of your application depends on financial circumstances and borrowing history, so do the terms you may be offered. The interest rates may differ from those shown. T&Cs apply. There's no denying that airports can be stressful at peak times, but with a bit of planning, you can make the whole experience a lot more enjoyable. Alleviate pre-departure panic by booking your airport parking as far in advance as possible, and weigh up the benefits versus the cost – for example, if you're taking off very early in the morning, paying for a parking space closer to the terminal might be well worth the extra money. Or, sometimes it's worth taking public transport the night before and staying at one of the airport hotels. Not only can it end up working out cheaper, but starting your trip round the corner (and with a fry-up in your belly) drastically reduces any travel stress. The airport chaos of 2022 taught us the value of arriving early to get through security, but one surefire way to eliminate any stress is to buy a fast-track pass and glide right past those lines. The majority of airports sell these in advance on their websites, with discounts the earlier you book. If you really want to kick off a trip in style, the airport lounge is the way to go. While some airline lounges are only for their customers, most airports have general lounges that you can book. They are, however, more expensive when bought on arrival, so purchase a pass in advance for the best rate. Lounge access also comes as a perk with some credit cards and bank accounts – for a monthly fee, Barclays Travel Plus Pack4 (£22.50 a month) includes six annual visits to more than 1,000 airport lounges with the DragonPass Premier+ app5, as well as discounts on fast-track security and airport parking. 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If you'd like a helping hand, the Barclays Travel Plus Pack also includes a 24/7 concierge service, for help with booking flights, hotels and events, with exclusive discounts too. However much you plan in advance, be sure to allow a little room for spontaneity. Sometimes the best find is the one that comes from a chat in the local coffee shop, where someone tells you about a cool craft beer spot. Or the market only the locals know about that you stumble upon on a walk. It's hardly the most exciting part of organising a holiday, but working out your budget is important nonetheless. Be realistic about how you want to spend your time and how much it will cost – for example, if you love spending the day on a sun lounger with a cocktail in hand, an all-inclusive trip may work out the best in terms of value. Once you've worked out how much you want to put aside, you can make use of savings tools offered by your bank – Barclays has a savings goal8 on its app9, so you can keep on track. 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If you pay in British pounds on your debit card while abroad, a transaction fee will still apply. 8 You must have a Barclays or Barclaycard account, have a mobile number and be aged 16 or over to use the Barclays app. T&Cs apply. 9 You must be 11 or over to use the app. T&Cs apply.

Stacey Solomon soaks up the sun in orange bikini on holiday – despite admitting she felt ‘self-conscious' stripping off
Stacey Solomon soaks up the sun in orange bikini on holiday – despite admitting she felt ‘self-conscious' stripping off

The Sun

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  • The Sun

Stacey Solomon soaks up the sun in orange bikini on holiday – despite admitting she felt ‘self-conscious' stripping off

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Morocco's new cross-country cycling route
Morocco's new cross-country cycling route

BBC News

time13 hours ago

  • BBC News

Morocco's new cross-country cycling route

Winding from southern deserts into snowcapped mountains towards northern beaches, the Route of Caravans offers adventurous travellers a stunning glimpse of the nation few tourists see. "No route, no route!" said a smiling man wearing a long white robe and holding a stout shepherd's staff, his donkey in tow. He pointed over his shoulder, down the U-shaped canyon I had planned to follow to the nearest road, which was still several kilometres away. He then motioned towards the ground, indicating that the rough terrain my travel companion and I were pushing our bicycles over continued long into the canyon. "That's okay," I said to him in French, shrugging in the direction we'd come from. "There's no route back that way, either." It wasn't precisely true. While the canyon trail we'd been traversing in Morocco's soaring High Atlas mountains wasn't exactly manicured, it was nevertheless part of a brand-new bikepacking route. We had just set out on the 837km Route of Caravans: Morocco Traverse (North), the second leg of a recently completed two-tier cycling trail traversing the length of Morocco from the town of Tiznit on the country's south-western coast to Tangier in the north. Since a digital map of the route's northern leg debuted on the adventure-cycling website Bikepacking in autumn 2024, it has lured bikepackers (off-road cyclists who carry overnight gear) to wind, slalom and climb their way from the town of Imilchil in the High Atlas Mountains past rolling hills and alpine passes to the Mediterranean port city, where they can catch a ferry across the Strait of Gibraltar to Spain. Tracing its arc from southern desert to northern beaches, the trail's two legs make use of ancient caravan roads trod by camels' hooves and shepherd paths used by the country's Indigenous Amazigh (long referred to as "Berber" by outsiders) communities who have called Morocco home for some 20,000 years. The route is the result of a long-held dream of a handful of adventurous international cyclists keen to forge a path through some of Morocco's least-visited regions. To me, it felt like slipping through the country's backdoor and, occasionally, a bit like time travel. Following narrow paths through pastures where shepherds graze flocks on rain-fed grass, I got a firsthand glimpse of the seasonally nomadic lifestyle that still thrives in the mountains. In remote canyons, I met Amazigh women who piled their donkeys high with edible herbs and wildflowers foraged in meadows far from their mud-brick homes. The Route of Caravans is one of many long-distance bikepacking routes sprouting up around the world in places like the Peruvian Andes, North America's Continental Divide and the Scottish Highlands where intrepid two-wheeled travellers can immerse themselves in stunning natural settings and remote communities. The challenges these routes present – such as terrain so rugged you may occasionally "hike-a-bike" instead of pedalling it – are all part of the appeal. The new route also had a personal draw for me. Having travelled to Morocco decades earlier and following the classic tourist's itinerary between cities like Fez, Marrakech and Essaouira, I was haunted by glimpses of the more remote places I passed between such sites, and curious about those who lived there. Riding the Route of Caravans would be a return, of sorts – one focussed less on sites themselves than on the places in between. After checking my steel mountain bike as baggage on the flight and strapping it with bags to carry my clothes, camping gear and equipment, I set off from the bus station at Beni Mellal, a 135km ride from the route's starting point in Imilchil, beginning a slow climb into the still-snowy summits of the High Atlas mountains. Over the next two weeks, the Route of Caravans would carry me across three mountain ranges, into ancient cities, through Amazigh villages and towards Tangier, where two seas and continents meet. "[The route is] shockingly diverse," said Evan Christenson, a cyclist from San Diego, California, who scouted and designed the route for Bikepacking. "You go from the High Atlas, which is just exposed raw granite, and into the green and rolling pastures of the Rif Mountains… There are different cultures you go through, too." More like this:• Scotland's epic 210-mile bikepacking adventure• A new 5,500km bike trail connecting one of Europe's most remote regions• Canada's delectable 235km food trail Cycling between the villages of the High Atlas mountains, I saw the anthropomorphic yaz symbol (representing freedom and independence for the Amazigh) scrawled on the houses and shepherd huts. And while I'd heard intermingled French and Arabic in the streets of Marrakech, many of the people we met in the mountains spoke dialects of the Amazigh language Tamazight. "Azul," I said, on the second day on the route, when I joined a handful of women filling bottles at a public tap in a community too small to be named on the map. The oldest among them had geometric facial tattoos on their chins and cheeks, the intersecting lines creased and blurred with time. I sat down to wait my turn, but they ushered me to the front of the line. "Azul," they said, smiling. The Tamazight greeting translates, literally, as "from the heart". In such moments, I felt a world away from the Morocco that has recently seen explosive tourism growth – 17.4 million travellers arrived in 2024, representing a 20% increase compared to 2023. A 2024 McKinsey & Company report on global tourism listed Marrakech as one of the cities most impacted by overtourism worldwide, with an additional 86% rise in tourism projected by 2030. Yet the Route of Caravans' far-flung villages, sheep-dotted meadows and remote stone shelters offer travellers a glimpse of Morocco few experience. Arriving in the small town of Boumia after days camping under stars and frost-touched pines, we shopped for dates and bread on the single main street and met Nabil Abdullah, a young man who'd clocked us as outsiders and hoped to practice his English. "Here, we get maybe five or 10 tourists a month. With you, this month, I think it's seven," he said, before inviting us to his home for lunch. Creating an 837km cycling route that avoids main roads in settings that are sometimes profoundly isolated requires a huge amount of work – and in this case, collaboration. In spring 2024, Christenson spent about six weeks crisscrossing the northern half of Morocco on two wheels, riding back roads and donkey trails, and exploring shepherd paths he'd spotted on satellite maps of the region. "I had a pretty good idea of where I wanted to go," he explained. "And then, if it didn't go through, I would turn around and try again." As Christenson created the digital map, he dropped occasional hints for riders about where to sleep, find water and buy food. Fortunately for cyclists, wild camping is tolerated across much of rural Morocco: we set up our two-person tent in rocky canyons; pine forests; and in an ancient, long-abandoned mudbrick building. One night, as dusk fell on a hilltop site in the Middle Atlas mountain range, we watched as a family of endangered Barbary macaques leaped between the crowns of towering Atlas cedars. "It's a special perspective to be travelling through these places on a bicycle," said Sarah Swallow, an American cyclist who completed the 1,266km southern portion of the Route of Caravans this spring. "It's more intimate – not only with the landscape and the natural environment, but also the people… you're vulnerable in a lot of ways, so you open yourself up to more experiences, like needing people's help, or leaning on people at times." Already, some ambitious cyclists are linking up the two halves for an extraordinary, country-spanning journey. Early on our trip, we met south-bound cyclists Julia Winkelbach and Christian Wagner, who had left their home in Germany the previous summer and were riding the entire 2,103km route from Tangier to Tiznit. They told me they sometimes carried 20 litres of water while riding through the Sahara, had camped through a sandstorm and found scorpion tracks around their tent. It speaks to Morocco's astonishing contrasts that as Winkelbach and Wagner travelled deeper into the world's largest hot desert, we wound north through the softening topography and lush vegetation of the Rif Mountains. The increasingly gentle landscape and hint of sea salt in the breeze hinted that Tangier wasn't far. Approaching the coast drew us closer to the city's big resorts and tourist crowds, yet our route still felt like a rolling ramble through remote landscapes cloaked in green. Wishing to savour the quiet for one night more, we gave a final glance towards the path leading to Tangier and turned onto a paved road that hugged a quiet stretch of coastline. Our final campsite was on a sandy beach at the edge of the Mediterranean Sea. With bare feet in the sand, we stood by our bikes and waited for sunset, watching as Venus flickered above the far horizon. The mountains at our back, we woke to the sound of waves. -- For more Travel stories from the BBC, follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram.

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