Turquoise Balconies, Rimini, Italy

Small turquoise glass balconies jut out from a rookery of tiny apartments in Rimini.

Church wall, Rimini, Italy

The wall of an old church in Rimini is an oasis of cool grey colors beside the riot of activity surrounding it.

Flowerhead models, Rimini, Italy

Two flower-headed models, lurking together in their inhumanity. I have to admit that I find these mannequins genuinely disturbing to look at, and quite distracting from the clothing that they are intended to be modeling to me.

Flowerhead model, Rimini, Italy

The dehumanization of mannequin models continues apace: she isn't even allowed a face, just a burst of beautiful flowers.

Tattooed Snow White, Rimini, Italy

In a totally different shop-front, this tattooed Snow White brings a smile to my face every time I see it.

Mickey Mouse Calzature Bimbo, Rimini, Italy

I'm pretty sure that "Mickey Mouse Baby Shoes" is defiantly flouting international copyright law with their odd-looking interpretation of The Mouse, and indeed I really hope they are.

Camels, Rimini, Italy

A caravan of camels working their way across a garage door in Rimini.

Red flower bridge, Rimini, Italy

Burgeoning red flowers, petunias I think, along the side of a bridge in Rimini.

Octopus DJ, Rimini, Italy

I am irrationally in love with this octopus DJ.

Lone flower, Rimini Beach, Italy

A lone flower poke up from the sand at the edge of a concrete walkway to the beach in Rimini.

Rimini changing booths, Italy

Even the rows of changing booths go on forever in Rimini.

Umbrella forest, Rimini, Italy

More views of the umbrella forests on the beach at Rimini.

Black bars, Rimini, Italy

I have no idea why this woman is wearing two dark black bars painted on either side of her spine. I can only imagine it will leave a quite unusual pattern in her tan.

Packed beach, Rimini, Italy

Another view of the Rimini beach, looking backwards from the edge of the water to where the condominiums begin to rise.

Packed beach, Rimini, Italy

And this is what everyone apparently comes to Rimini for: beaches that I suppose are nice, but that I would have a hard time enjoying since they are so utterly and completely packed with people. Somewhere down at the end of that apparently endless line of umbrellas is the ocean.

I grew up mostly in Maine, where even on beautiful hot summer days you could just walk down a little farther to find big swaths of open empty beach. To me, that has defined the experience of beaches, and my feeling about a place like the Rimini beach (or other similar that I have seen elsewhere) is one of profound claustrophobia.

Mare That Way, Rimini, Italy

My last stop in Italy last year was an afternoon in Rimini, a seaside city known for intense beaches and Roman ruins. The city is quite clear on why you are more likely to be there though, and everywhere points you clearly to the ocean.

Train station roof, Italy

A curious ovoid skylight in the roof of a train station in Italy.

Swifts at dusk, Bertinoro, Italy

Swifts at dusk in Bertinoro, darting all around the buildings of the town's main square.

Bertinoro overlook at dusk

Looking out into the clear air beyond a overlook in the middle of Bertinoro, about halfway down the hill, a few swifts dancing in the air chasing insects.

Reagan Presidente USA,1991, Bertinoro, Italy

Found on a wall of little plaques of names in a restaurant I ate at: I think this means that Ronald Reagan visited Bertinoro a few years after leaving the presidency. I wonder what might have brought him there.

Half-paved wall, Bertinoro, Italy

Cobblestones go halfway up this wall to form a stylishly jagged boundary.

Proud heads, Bertinoro, Italy

These two proud heads stood on the windowsill of somebody's house along the main road of Bertinoro. To me, they look vaguely Moorish in style, but their true story remains obscure.

Celebration, Bertinoro, Italy

Another, less formal piece of decoration: this little celebrating figure appears high on a wall in Bertinoro, one of the only bits of graffiti I saw in the entire village.

Small shrine under archway, Bertinoro, Italy

Tucked under an archway on a less-used path into the town, I found this small apparently-religious shrine.

Monastary Parapet, Bertinoro, Italy

Guarding the entrance to the Bertinoro Monastary, projecting out from the side of the main building, was this intriguing sloping parapet. It has clearly been refurbished to include a modern walkway, but I never found an accessible entrance onto it, which saddened me because the views from that walkway would have been lovely---and I always enjoy exploring odd architectural corners.

Villa-style house, Bertinoro, Italy

On an edge of town in Bertinoro, I saw this building stylistically invoking a classic Roman villa, built around an open atrium in its middle.

Lower Bertinoro, Italy

The lower town of Bertinoro, seen from an overlook in the middle of the town: again, notice that it's all basically around just one tightly packed road. Driving down the middle of that road, the walls of houses are tight together and you might be in the depths of any large city in Italy (or much of Europe), but from above and outside that illusion is shattered.

Countryside near Bertinoro, Italy

Another view into the Bertinoro countryside, to the cluster of communications equipment on the next steep hill, this one quite unpopulated.

Countryside near Bertinoro, Italy

Bertinoro stands at the Southern edge of the great fertile plain of Northern Italy, where it begins to climb into hills, then ultimately the Apennine Mountains. The land below the hill of Bertinoro is filled with farms and orchards going up and down their own steep slopes.

Steep Bertinoro alley, Italy

Another example of a wonderfully precipitous street in Bertinoro, stone on both the street and all the surrounding buildings.