Now this is exciting, known as one of the more important Roman bridges still standing. It is known today as the Bridge of Tiberius, but it is also known as the Bridge of Augustus and the Bridge of St. Julian. I’ve decided that I like the latter one the best, so that’s what I’m calling it.
The construction of this bridge began in 14 AD under Emperor Augustus and it’s evident that he likes things that were built to last. Emperor Tiberius finished the job off and it’s his name that seems to be the most commonly used now which probably would have annoyed Augustus.
This was an important structure, it carried the Via Aemilia and the Via Popilia, which in Roman times were major roads connecting Rimini to the rest of the Roman Empire. Architecturally, I think that this is rather beautiful with its five arches constructed out of Istrian stone, that sturdy pale rock that the Romans adored for its durability. It was also properly built with foundations that goes right into the riverbed, with some clever load distribution systems going on which even my civil engineer friend Liam would have likely been surprised and delighted by.
The bridge has had some challenging times, although that’s not entirely surprising given that it’s 2,000 years old. In 552, the bridge was deliberately damaged by a Gothic military commander and it was damaged again in 1528 when Pandolfo (a name which sounds like a magician) retreated from Rimini. The Spanish knocked it about a bit during the War of the Austrian Succession and it was ordered to be demolished by the Germans in 1944. However, the local commander seemingly deliberately did a bad job of that, so, fortunately, it was saved and it was the only bridge along the River Marecchia that did survive.
In May 2020, after some considerable years of debate, argument and planning, the sensible decision was finally made to pedestrianise it. That has now helped protect it for future generations and has made it much easier for pedestrians and cyclists to actually use without the fear of cars hitting them.
I had a little walk along the bridge, which is one of the oldest surviving in the world, and it is hard not to be impressed by the heritage of this. The stonework glistened and it looked sturdy and robust, I’m very much impressed at the Roman engineers who managed to put this together. The Istrian stone that was used wasn’t local and it would have been a faff to get here, but the Romans wanted something that wouldn’t promptly fall down and I’d say that it was worth the effort.
I like an old gate, imagining the heritage of this. Porta Galliana, which takes its name from the local Galli family, is the last surviving medieval gate of Rimini and it was originally constructed in the thirteenth century. It’s been knocked about over the years and remodelled plenty of times, but it’s still standing here. It is located by the Marecchia river and was part of the defensive structure of Rimini, with this being the water gate arrangement that gave access to the harbour.
The gate area was redeveloped recently to allow it to become more accessible and I think that they’ve done a really decent job of it. They’ve been hampered a little by it being 3.25 metres below the current street line. It was partly demolished in the nineteenth century and has been incorporated into other structures as the city changed around it.
The gate was restored by Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, the Lord of Rimini, between 1417 and 1468. This was a time when Rimini was dealing with its medieval priorities of not being attacked by neighbouring cities, but also wanting to ensure its maritime trade continued. There were also some water management elements introduced to the gate, primarily to avoid flooding to the city.
My night’s accommodation in Rimini was in the Accor operated Mercure Rimini Lungomare (lungomare is Italian for seafront). I suspect that this is quite a busy hotel during the summer months, although I can’t imagine that the demand is quite as high in November. I noticed several hotels along the seafront just close up for the winter months.
My room was upgraded and I had a rather nice balcony.
After I had worked out how to open the door (I suspect it was a child lock, so that will of course defeat me for some time) this was the view from my balcony. I always think this is lovely, but then promptly never go back out onto the balcony.
My very nice private balcony, which I didn’t go back out onto after looking out here.
Very lovely.
I’m not sure exactly what they are, but they were very nice.
The staff member at reception was particularly friendly and personable when I checked-in, so I felt very welcome. He mentioned that I could have a free drink between 19:00 and 21:00 which I privately thought seemed a bit limited for the bar opening. He then explained that this was extra to my welcome drink, which I could have at any time, and it was a hotel’s way of welcoming guests with snacks and a drink. I very much liked this arrangement.
These were the free snacks offered in the evening and this is something I’d like to see in many other locations.
I went for white wine, which I thought was very Italian.
I then went off for my two hour long walk and decided to switch back to beer. Well, Peroni, which is similar. And some more snacks. I sat outside to be continental although I think it was about minus three.
Breakfast the next morning, which had a fine selection of meats, cheeses, breads and the like.
Delicious.
There was no shortage of Nutella.
My first course.
I liked my first croissant, so I had another one. This pistachio tart thing was also very delicious.
Richard would have liked this, make your own orange juice from, well, oranges. I had quite a few glasses of this.
Anyway, I really liked this hotel, with no noise disturbances either internally or externally. I liked the welcome gift, the welcome beer, the welcome wine and the welcome food, so I definitely felt welcome. The hotel was spotless, the staff were friendly and the nightly rate was very reasonable. The breakfast was delicious and this Accor Hotel certainly surprised and delighted me.
After a long day of travelling, my evening plan was simply to get to the hotel and then have a little meander around the coastal part of Rimini. The hotel had a pleasant balcony arrangement looking out over the coast and Rimini felt like a slightly upmarket Great Yarmouth.
There’s a long promenade which has plenty of seating, along with restaurants and bars along the side although most of these seemed closed for the winter. There are then some paths to the sand and the Adriatic where I could have gone and sun bathed if I was interested in that. Well, moon bathed anyway.
So, below are just some random photos of my evening meander and apologies that some of them aren’t what might be called shining examples of photography. I’d note though that I was standing in what was pretty much entire darkness for some of the photos, so my phone did well to capture anything.
After an uninspiring time spent in Orte, I returned back to the railway station before it fell down. There was a station cleaner doing a remarkable job, but this railway station does perhaps need a modernisation.
A war memorial. The station itself first opened in 1865 and it was briefly a terminus before the line was extended.
There’s currently no waiting room at this railway station and there’s not much seating anywhere. It was all a little bleak. There’s a cafe which doubles up as a little shop, but I decided against getting any snacks at that point.
It was actually Trieste that I needed to get to, but that is a very long journey and so I decided just to get to Rimini and then work it out from there. By this point I still hadn’t had any sleep since leaving Luton Travelodge early the previous morning, so I was just pleased to get as far as Rimini.
The train came sweeping into the platform. There are three types of trains in Italy, the high-speed intercity, the long distance trains and the regional trains. This was the middle one of those, but it’s the regional trains that I like the most.
There are compulsory seat reservations on the train and it was relatively busy. There was an elderly lady who was insistent that a foreign passenger (I assume foreign as she didn’t speak Italian) should move. Unfortunately, there were some translation issues and the women sitting in the wrong seat didn’t move for about twenty minutes. On the third try, she got the hint.
I mentioned that I like the regional trains the best and that’s because they’re double deckers, they’re spacious, they have power outlets and you don’t get manacled by seat reservations. To be fair though, this one did though have power outlets and I liked having the table.
It’s quite a beautiful journey with the Adriatic Sea easily visible along the coastal stretch.
It all got quieter as we neared Rimini. This photo was taken near to Pesaro, currently in the centre of a Pavarotti statue debacle.
And safely into Rimini, on time and quite relaxed by now. I had another little nap on the train just to entirely catch up on sleep and I found the sea view quite entertaining. I suspect that the ticket check took place when I was asleep as I woke up and was the only one in the carriage who had their ticket checked. Well, I was either asleep or looked completely dodgy and like a fare evader, but I like the former.
Anyway, an enjoyable journey and that meant my travels were coming to an end for the day other than for a walk to the hotel and a little evening walk around Rimini.
I arrived in Orte early in the morning from Rome, with the plan to spend a couple of hours looking around here before going to Rimini. It didn’t really go to plan, but here’s a religious statue outside the railway station. As a warning for the rest of this post, don’t expect much of interest to happen here….
The railway station is in a new part of Orte, but I thought I’d walk the 30 minutes to the old city. However, I discovered that although Google Maps thought that I could walk it, there was no pavement beyond this point and there wasn’t even much of a pavement at this point.
I’m not walking along that and a quick scan of Google Streetview showed that it was unwalkable with no path. So, I abandoned that plan thinking this is remarkably unusual for a town to have forgotten to connect itself to the railway station. Although not entirely unique…..
The River Tiber is in there somewhere.
I was now very much struggling to find anything interesting, but here’s a nice sculpture.
And back to the railway station, so all rather an anti-climax. I’m pleased to note that the rest of my Italian adventure was somewhat more interesting than this. I accept that I could have got on a bus to Orte if I had time to work all that out, but I didn’t much fancy missing my train as I was stuck waiting for a bus back.
My plan was to get from Rome Airport across to Rimini during the day, where I had booked a hotel. The first part of that was from the airport railway station to Orte.
This meant amusing myself for a few hours overnight, so I decided to eat some crisps which is always a sensible thing to do to pass some time.
I went to look where the airport’s railway station was as I thought that might kill some time as well. It took up about three minutes.
It’s not difficult to find and they’re also building a new underpass to get there.
Mine was the 06:57 train to Orte. By this time it was 03:15 and I was starting to feel I had explored all that needed exploring at the airport.
I sat near the entrance to the railway station waiting and I then realised, at about 05:40, that it was possible to change my rail ticket for free to any train on the same day. With the digital tickets, you can do this until just before the train, but at that point, you’re committed. What this meant is that I could catch an earlier train, so the 05:57 train to Orte. This seemed a sensible plan as I didn’t have much else to do.
Here’s the train, all clean, shiny and well presented.
There was lots of space and I’ve come to really like these Rock trains (or Hitachi Caravaggio) that they use on regional routes. They’re modern, they have power outlets, they’re double deckers and they’re comfortable with clear signage.
I changed seating styles to have a little nap.
Getting there….
And safely in Orte for a little exploration. Although this transpired not to be very exciting, but more of that in the next post….
For those confused where we are in my riveting blog, I’m now going back a couple of weeks as I had to get from Cardiff to Ljubljana using whatever means possible, but I could only get flights costing £9 with Wizz Air Multi Pass. My first expedition was to get to Rome, then to work the rest out afterwards. There’s my flight, the 21:40.
A quick visit to Big Smoke and due to increasing prices of what is covered by Priority Pass, I’ve cut down to pineapple juice and chicken tenders. All very healthy.
Calamari and pineapple juice at Nolito and I’m never entirely surprised and delighted by their calamari so I’m going to shake things up and change this order up next time. I should probably get out more….
Oh great, it’s nearly Christmas.
The Rome flight was delayed by around 40 minutes, meaning that it was the last one out of Luton Airport in the evening. This means that everyone sitting here was going to Rome, unless they were perhaps muddled up.
It’s all happening now!
Here we are, the last flight out of Luton Airport.
Boarding and this is aircraft registration HA-LGV, seemingly another one (from my extensive records that aren’t anywhere near complete) that I haven’t been on before.
There were quite a lot of sleepy passengers on this flight, which was around 80% full. As ever with Wizz Air, the flight was well managed, the aircraft was clean, the crew were friendly and absolutely nothing went wrong. There’s a lot to be said for uneventful flights. The seating Gods gave me an aisle seat for this flight, so that was handy.
We all disembarked from the front of the aircraft as they wanted to use a jet bridge for this late arriving flight, but then there was no-one to unlock the door. So I stood here for a few minutes.
At this point it was decided that we’d be getting a bus to the terminal and this is always a slight faff. But, I was in no rush.
Safely in Rome and I got to use the semi-automated digital border control system for the first time, as Poland doesn’t seem to be using it fully yet. There was quite a queue for this, but it was all painless.
A helpful service…. I sat here for a while as the baggage reclaim, which I never have a need to use, had some power points and I wanted to be fully charged for my next little adventure. By fully charged I mean my devices, I was not fully charged as this was a sleepless overnight onwards expedition.
The pub stop en route from Cardiff to Luton was the JD Wetherspoon operated The Bear in the fine town of Maidenhead. This was all rather appropriate because this is where Liam grew up, although he didn’t take up drinking until he became friends with me, I suspect I drove him to it. But, anyway, this pub is also listed in the Good Beer Guide so that’s another box ticked.
It’s quite a spacious arrangement and using the chain’s history notes about the pub name, which is one of the few that they haven’t named themselves.
“The name of this historic inn was perpetuated when it became a Wetherspoon pub in 2010. The Bear has been on this site since 1845. Previously, it was at the corner of Park Street and High Street. The Bear is recorded in 1489, when the landlord charged ‘an unlawful price for provisions’. In the early 19th century, it was one of the town’s main coaching inns, but was converted into a private house in 1845.”
The real ale selection and there’s a couple of interesting options there, as well as the Greene King IPA for those who want something to clean their shoes with or something.
My now obligatory carpet photo.
I was slightly surprised that this pub is on the cheapest price band for the chain, I thought being on the Elizabeth Line into London they might have gone for some premium pricing. There are our drinks on the screen and these were made promptly, but not served before the food arrived. As we were sitting by the counter I asked if we could possibly just take the drinks as the food arrived, with the team members helpfully facilitating that.
This might have been the third day in a row that I had this…. Well, actually, it was the third day in a row, but I like their steak pie and especially so when it’s just over £7 including a drink. The included drink is the Eye of the Tiger from Wilde Child, a very agreeable beer which had a taste of marshmallows and chocolate, certainly verging on decadent.
As it’s a JD Wetherspoon pub, I feel the need to look at the online reviews and this venue is rated around average for the chain.
“On the 8th Nov 2025 I attended the rememberance day in maidenhead as I am a veteran with 24 years service. My partner was away so I brought the dog with me. There where lots of veterans outside the weatherspoons so i decided to buy a pint there. I had my medals and could be clearly identified as a veteran. On buying a pint I was then approached by a staff member and told that I would not be served as my dog wasn’t a service dog. I wasn’t even allowed to stand outside with a drink which i offered to do. The staff where very polite. Mr Weatherspoon, if it wasn’t for veterans then your pub wouldn’t exist or you would now be serving German beer. Shameful, stupid rules Mr Weatherspoon. You should be ashamed.”
Just about every JD Wetherspoon pub is littered with reviews about why they should be exempted from their dog ban, including how well behaved it is, how quiet it is, how it wouldn’t cause any trouble. They’ve made it simple by just banning all non-assistance dogs, I’m not entirely sure why Tim Martin should be ashamed.
“I recently visited this pub and unfortunately had a poor experience. After ordering and paying for a drink, I was informed that dogs were not allowed on the premises due to pub regulations. While I understand and respect their policy, this information was not clearly displayed, leading to an unnecessary purchase and inconvenience. Furthermore, the pub’s cleanliness left much to be desired. I recommend they make their dog policy much more visible at the entrance to prevent similar situations for other customers.”
In fairness, there isn’t a sign out the front about this, or there wasn’t when we visited anyway.
“Ordered a Stella for £4.37, poured half and then left me for 5 minutes to change the barrel and then brought the warm half a pint back and proceeded to continue to fill. I asked for a fresh pint and he wasn’t pleased that a customer could do that!!! Cheap pub but don’t expect a great experience”
I suspect quite a few pubs would be surprised that a customer would ask for a keg beer to be changed in such circumstances. I’ve removed the unnecessary comment about the team member…..
“Ordered food and had it delivered @8.30 only to be told by the doorman that we needed to leave by 9pm because we had children. The manger was unsympathetic and said half an hour was ample to eat food! When asked if he had children he said no!! To which I replied how do you expect children to eat within half an hour especially those with additional needs! No compensation received”
It does sound ample 🙂
“Absolutely disgusting service from the male server and manager on shift this evening. I ordered food through the app – I asked if the server could provide me with allergen information regarding the side salad sauce (I have coeliac disease and this is not on the allergen menu) the server refused to help me in any way, saying that it’s “company policy” to not give out any allergen information. I then approached the bar where I heard him bad mouthing me to the manager who said “well I’m not going to give her any information either”. In the end I asked to see the sauce bottle and the manager acted as if this was a huge inconvenience rather than a simple task. Ridiculous.”
It’s not on the allergen information charts as it’s not an allergen, team members aren’t going to be easily able to give advice on this and that seems to me a very sensible and responsible company policy.
“Unfortunately its hard to give a good opinion on this pub as it’s damaged in reputation for losing its lively atmosphere and hosting a good night out.”
I suspect the chain quite liked losing its lively atmosphere to be fair.
“Slow service but the beer used to be good at this Wetherspoons pub. Tables never too clean, and always a bit sticky. Now that it lost its good beer guide place 2018 no point to bother. Go to Coppa Club, it is only up the road.”
At least it’s back in now 🙂
Anyway, I digress once again. I rather liked it here, it was busy, the team members were friendly, the service was efficient, the prices are firmly towards the lower end of the scale and the beer range was entirely acceptable. All quite lovely.
Leaving Tredegar House, my first birthday weekend (as in the first of two, I’m not aged one) was coming to an end, with Richard walking to his car to go to one of his specialist locations. But, this wasn’t before a lady called upon Liam to fix her car, which he did admirably. Given that Ross isn’t a confident driver, I can’t drive and Richard drives into hedges, she picked the right person from the four of us.
Anyway, off Richard went. Richard was a little sad as he doesn’t like his car any more as he’s seen how nice a car Liam now has. Ross commented this was evident by the amount of junk thrown on the back seat as Richard tries to hide looking at the car itself. But we didn’t say anything.
We crossed over the Severn Bridge.
Back into sunny England, this is the Second Severn Crossing, more formally known as the Prince of Wales Bridge.
The end of a rather lovely weekend in Wales. We stopped at a JD Wetherspoon in Maidenhead, which is Liam’s hometown but more about that in another post (about the pub, not Liam’s family history).
Always a bit sad, but there go Liam and Ross after dropping me off at Luton Travelodge, as I only do decadent travel.
I’ve stayed here a few times before, it’s nowhere near the airport but I like walking.
The room was clean and comfortable, located at the far end of a corridor away from the lift, just as I like it.
In the morning, I walked the three miles into the centre of Luton whilst listening to podcasts, nothing like a bit of politics to start the week.
A very nice, and keenly priced, breakfast at JD Wetherspoon. I fancied a hot chocolate, but Keir Starmer has banned them, but the coffees tasted fine and the breakfast was cooked perfectly.
Then to collect my free weekly Greggs sausage roll, this didn’t disappoint.
Then another three mile walk to Luton Airport as I’m not paying for that DART. The weather was tolerable, the walk was not really exciting, but it’s good for the soul to walk six miles before a flight I’ve decided. With that, I needed to work out how to get to Ljubljana for my second birthday weekend….
