Metropole - Rimini, Italy     

We stayed at hotel Metropole, Rimini in June 2002, it was our first anniversary ..... awwww. We arrived at Rimini train station having flown to Forli from Stansted with Ryanair, then got train to Rimini, then taxi to hotel, which was about a mile or so south of the train station. On arrival we though the receptionist had extremely good English, and we didn't initially catch on to the fact that she originally came from a town about 20 miles from us!!! This of course was handy, as we got frequent weather forecast updates, advice on where to go etc. Unfortunately the pool wasn't open at first due to poor weather. By the time it was open, we'd discovered the beach, which was really clean, you do pay a premium for this of course - it costs around 6 euros per day, but they get you loungers, umbrella etc, you can use the toilets, changing rooms, and when you go for lunch - nobody can nick your lounger!! It's yours for however long you pay for - day, 3 days, week etc. The bathroom appeared fairly new, the bedroom furniture was a bit worn, but everything was nice and clean. There was a balcony with a side view. The bathroom was actually just a shower room. There was a bar in the reception area, but we just never bothered. We found an excellent and very reasonable restaurant called Joe's Pizzeria just along the road and ate there several times. We gave up on breakfast after 2 attempts. We are vegetarian, and I just wouldn't eat cheese that was layered with salami, or unlabelled yoghurt, so that wasn't for me. The display looked nice enough, just not for veggies! We bought bread and crema bel paese cheese in the supermarket across the road after that! We're going back to Rimini on 10 June, we loved the place. This time we're staying at Mercure La Gradisca, not because we disliked Metropole, but just because we got a fantastic rate of £55 per room per night, and we're hoping we can eat their breakfast - they've been forewarned about my fussiness!! Ha.