Just back from Rimini - thought I'd report back

Firstly, flights. Ryanair - East Midlands to Rimini - no problem at all. £45 all in (taxes, charges, baggage etc) in July - a steal. Airport in Rimini 7 miles from city centre, a taxi cost us 29 euros to Rivabella 2km north of city.

Rivabella - nice, quiet resort due to its location north of the city. Perhaps too quiet. Not many places open late - come 1am its a ghost town. Beach lovely though - Adriatic as warm as bath water. One excellent restaurant here - La Posada - very nice. Very few English tourists here, pretty much totally italian. Luckily I can speak a little bit of Italian.

Hotel Apis nice, but would have prefered to have a hotel in the Marina Centre with hindsight. Air-conditioning invaluable. Hotels very reasonable. for £50 a night you can get a really good room. Ours was less than that, and although pretty functional it was absolutely fine. and had wi-fi. so we took the laptop. Sad I know!!

Transport. To get into the city of the Marina Centre where all the bars, shops are, you need to either get a taxi or bus. we opted for buses. 11 euros buys you an unlimited week's transport. Buses run until gone 2am so no problem getting around town. little bit boring getting buses but not insurmountable. Bit of a fight getting on/off

Weather - hot hot hot. 40 degrees everyday. very hot at nights too. thank heavens for air-conditioning.

Beaches. I'm not fond of this private beach culture. if you're in a different part of town and want to spend an hour on a beach its nigh on impossible unless you find the free beach at either end of the main beach. Which isnt as clean as your hotel's bit.

Shopping. A heaven. Marina Centro and City have great shops, also out of town shopping centres galore. Belfane really good. Number 8 bus goes very near.

Food and drink - food very reasonable. Goodness knows how Italians can eat antipasti (e.g. Melon and parma ham), then a pasta course, (spaghetti alla vongole) then a main course (steak, chips) then a dessert. That would have finished me off! Pizzas and pastas ranged from 7 - 10 euros - which is pretty good value. Pizzas generally huge and delicious. Beer was pretty pricey. 4 euros plus for a beer (400 ml so less than a pint) - getting it buy the litre was possible everywhere for about 7.50 euros for just about a pint and three quarters. But its in a litre glass - not a jug you could share.

Things to see. Fantastic old city. Tiberius Bridge, Arch all date back to the 1st century. Dance performed by the arch whilst we were there - saw Ballet on Saturday night - cultured or what.

Plenty of places to visit if you want - San Marino, Mirabilandia Theme Park, Italia in Minatura.

Nightlife - the blue line bus runs all night to the big superclubs (which are way out of the city centre so no problem there) Bars on the front are generally restaurants too. I did like the Rose and Crown - Rimini's oldest bar, lovely staff and great service.

As it happens Ricky Martin did a free gig as part of MTV's CocaCola Live performances which was great. 30000 crammed into one of the city's parks and Ricky with two other support artists performed. It was good. And a free bottle of coke on the way in!

All in all I would recommend the place. Don't be put off by all these websites that say its like Blackpool / Ibiza. Yes there is nightlife, yes there are tourist shops, yes it is busy. But not overly so. and not noisy at night - usual post midnight curfew on loud music. In July it was pretty busy. I can imagine in May/June/September/October it would be perfect temperatures, less busy and a delight.. I would definitely go back.

Hope this is useful.