Rimini surprises most visitors. The city built its reputation on 15km of Adriatic beach, packed beach clubs, and the Riccione club scene — but its historic centre contains some of the best-preserved Roman monuments in Italy, a Renaissance castle, and a museum whose mosaic collection rivals anything in Ravenna. The two sides of Rimini sit barely 10 minutes apart on foot, which means a single day can cover both without rushing.
Here is where to start.
The Arch of Augustus (Arco d’Augusto)
The Arch of Augustus is the oldest surviving Roman triumphal arch in Italy, built in 27 BC to mark the point where the Via Flaminia met the Via Aemilia — the two roads that connected Rome to the north. At 17.9 metres tall, with a single central arch flanked by engaged columns, it has stood at the southern end of the old city for over 2,000 years.
Entry: Free to visit at any time — the arch stands on a public piazza.
Opening hours: Always accessible (exterior). The surrounding piazza is well-lit at night and worth seeing after dark when the travertine glows under floodlights.
Getting there: The arch is a 12-minute walk from Rimini train station, or a 6-minute walk south from Piazza Tre Martiri.
The arch originally had bronze letters spelling out Augustus’s name across the attic, long since lost. The medieval notch cut into one of the columns — used to measure local fabric lengths — is a small but vivid detail that shows how completely the Roman past was absorbed into everyday medieval life.
Ponte di Tiberio (Tiberius Bridge)
Begun under Augustus and completed under Tiberius in 21 AD, the Ponte di Tiberio is one of the best-preserved Roman bridges in the world and still carries pedestrian and light vehicle traffic across the Marecchia river. The five-arch stone bridge — built from Istrian limestone — has survived floods, earthquakes, and two thousand years of use without significant structural modification.
Entry: Free — the bridge is a working public crossing.
Opening hours: Always accessible.
Getting there: The bridge is a 5-minute walk from the Arch of Augustus, at the northern edge of the old city. The stretch of riverfront path beside it is a pleasant place to sit in the evening.
The combination of the Arch of Augustus and the Ponte di Tiberio — barely 700 metres apart — forms what historians call the Via Aemilia route’s two anchoring monuments. Walking between them through the old town takes under 15 minutes and passes through the medieval grid of streets that sits directly on top of the Roman street plan.
Castel Sismondo (Sigismondo Castle)
Castel Sismondo was built between 1437 and 1446 by Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, the lord of Rimini, and designed (at least in part) by Leon Battista Alberti. It is a rare example of Italian Renaissance military architecture — angular bastions designed for artillery rather than the rounded towers of earlier medieval fortresses.
Entry: Approximately €5 as of 2026. Free for children under 14 and for EU citizens under 18. The castle regularly hosts temporary exhibitions; when an exhibition is running, the combined entry fee is typically €8–10.
Opening hours: Tuesday–Sunday 10:00–13:00 and 15:00–18:00 (winter). Tuesday–Sunday 10:00–13:00 and 16:00–19:00 (summer). Closed Mondays.
Getting there: The castle is in the historic centre, a 4-minute walk west of Piazza Tre Martiri.
Sigismondo used the castle as his personal residence rather than a pure military installation, and the internal courtyard retains much of its Renaissance proportions. The views from the upper terraces over the rooftops toward the Adriatic are among the best in the city.
Museo della Città di Rimini (Rimini City Museum)
The Rimini City Museum is housed in the former Jesuit college beside the church of San Francesco and brings together a collection that spans Roman sculpture, medieval painting, and — most significantly — an extraordinary series of Roman mosaic floors recovered from under the modern city during 20th-century construction works.
Entry: Approximately €10 as of 2026 (combined ticket covering the permanent collection and any temporary exhibitions). Free for children under 14 and EU citizens under 18.
Opening hours: Tuesday–Saturday 10:00–13:00 and 16:00–19:00. Sunday 10:00–19:00. Closed Mondays.
Getting there: Via L. Tonini 1, in the historic centre. A 3-minute walk from Castel Sismondo.
The mosaic collection is the highlight. The centrepiece is the Mosaic of the Surgeons — a large floor mosaic depicting surgical instruments, believed to have decorated the room of a Roman physician. It was discovered during construction work in 1989 and is one of the most unusual Roman mosaics surviving anywhere in Italy. The museum also holds a substantial collection of Rimini School painting — a distinctive regional Gothic style that flourished in the 14th century and is rarely shown elsewhere.
Allocate at least 90 minutes; the collection is larger than the exterior suggests.
Tempio Malatestiano
The Tempio Malatestiano began life as a Gothic Franciscan church (San Francesco) and was transformed in the 1450s by Sigismondo Malatesta into a Renaissance mausoleum — one of the earliest and most radical Renaissance religious buildings in Italy. Leon Battista Alberti wrapped the Gothic structure in a new shell of classical marble, modelled on the Arch of Augustus that stands just 200 metres away.
Entry: Free, though donations are welcomed.
Opening hours: Monday–Saturday 08:30–12:30 and 15:30–19:00. Sunday 09:00–13:00 and 15:30–19:00.
Getting there: Via IV Novembre 35, a 3-minute walk from Piazza Tre Martiri.
Alberti’s classical exterior is so complete that the Gothic interior — with its Gothic arches and chapels — comes as a surprise. The south side of the exterior has a series of carved sarcophagi set into arched niches, intended to hold the remains of Sigismondo’s court scholars and poets. Sigismondo’s own tomb is inside. The building is a UNESCO World Heritage candidate and one of the most architecturally significant buildings in the Emilia-Romagna region.
The Adriatic Beach
Rimini’s beach stretches 15km along the Adriatic, divided into numbered zones (stabilimenti) that each offer umbrella and sunbed rental. The beach is flat, sandy, and gently shelving — shallow enough for families with young children well out from shore.
Cost: Private beach clubs charge approximately €15–30 per day for a shared umbrella and two sunbeds as of 2026. Rates are highest in July and August; expect to pay significantly less in June or September. Watersports — pedalo, kayak, windsurf hire — are available from most stabilimenti.
Public beach: A stretch of free public beach (spiaggia libera) exists near the port, though facilities are minimal. Most visitors prefer the convenience of the beach clubs.
Best months: June and September — warm sea temperatures (23–26°C), far fewer crowds, and lower prices. July and August are peak season; the beach is genuinely packed and advance booking of a stabilimento spot is sensible.
Guided Tours and Activities
For visitors who want a structured introduction to Rimini’s Roman and Renaissance heritage, local guided tours run through the historic centre taking in the Arch of Augustus, Ponte di Tiberio, Tempio Malatestiano, and Castel Sismondo in around two hours. These typically cost approximately €15–25 per person as of 2026 and depart from Piazza Tre Martiri.
Watersports operators along the beach offer kayak hire (approximately €15–20/hour), stand-up paddleboard (approximately €15/hour), and longer sailing trips along the Adriatic coast (approximately €40–60 per person for a half-day). Book directly from the beach clubs or through a local activities aggregator.
For day trips, Ravenna’s Byzantine mosaics are 58km away (50 minutes by train, approximately €6 each way) and San Marino is 25km inland (bus from Rimini station, approximately €5 return). Both are feasible without a car.
Getting Around Rimini
The historic centre is compact and walkable — the Arch of Augustus to Ponte di Tiberio is a 12-minute walk through the medieval streets. The beach runs 3km east of the historic centre; bus lines 4 and 11 connect them in about 10 minutes (approximately €1.50 per trip). The tourist beach area (Marina Centro) can also be reached by the Rimini–Riccione tram line, which runs along the coast.
For day trips, Rimini’s train station connects directly to Ravenna (50 minutes), Bologna (1 hour), and Pesaro (30 minutes). Buses to San Marino depart from the train station.
For evenings, see our Rimini nightlife guide for clubs, beach bars, and the Riccione scene. For a full overview of the city, visit our Rimini city guide.