RIMINI is one of the least pretentious towns in Italy, the archetypal seaside resort, with a reputation for good if slightly sleazy fun that puts it on a par with Blackpool or Torremolinos. It's certainly brash enough to bear the comparison, and there's plenty of money in evidence; but Rimini is never downright tacky. Rather, it's a traditional family resort, to which some Italians return year after year, to stay in their customary pensione and be looked after by a hardworking padrona di casa as if they were relatives. Indeed the warmth of hoteliers in this part of Italy has undoubtedly added to the tourist industry's success. The resort is best avoided in August, unless you feel you can cope with teeming crowds. Out of season, it's a pleasant-enough town, but many hotels, restaurants, shops, etc, are closed and the atmosphere is almost eerily quiet.

There's another, less savoury side to the town: Rimini is known across Italy for its fast-living and chancy nightlife, and there's a thriving hetero- and transsexual prostitution scene alongside the town's more wholesome attractions. The road between the train station and the beach can be particularly full of kerb-crawlers, and, although it's rarely dangerous, women on their own - after dark at any rate - should be wary in this part of town.

Rimini was 95 percent destroyed in the last war; however, the town does have a much-ignored old centre that is worth at least a morning of your time. The extensive beach operation you see now had been built over the last forty years until the "Adriatic slime slick" (a mass of gloopy algae) hit business badly at the beginning of the 1980s. The clean-up operation seems to have been almost completely successful - and, despite occasional recurrences, a daunting number of holidaymakers troop once more through the city's airport. The beach, the crowds and the wild cruising are what you really come for: Rimini is still the country's best place to party