From there, we headed to lunch. The factory has it's own cafeteria so a private room was reserved and we ate on the premises.
The group.. as well as our tour guide for the day- Claudio
After lunch, we toured another adjacent factory (Stefani) and then we made the long drive to Rimini, which is where we would be staying for 3 days. The drive was very beautiful- lots and lots of beautiful landscape! And the most interesting part to me was that almost everyone had a vineyard in their backyard. Some were large and obviously used commercially.. and others were smaller.. just big enough for the families use.
It took us about 3 hours to get to our hotel in Rimini. Our only hiccup this day was that our GPS kept trying to re-route us through a certain way in town where a road was under construction. I would not of been as stressed had we been in the US. But the driving in Italy is very different! Luckily we went far enough in a different direction that the GPS finally re-routed us.
That night, we drove down to a different hotel for a "welcome dinner" with Thomas' boss and other employees of SCM and Casadei-Busellato. It was very nice and as a gift for all of the wives that had traveled along for the show, they gave us an Italian cookbook (in English of course!). After dinner, we headed back to our hotel, chatted in the lobby for a few and then headed to bed.
The next day (Friday), the guys would participate in the last day of factory tours.. while some of us went on a guided tour of Rimini and San Marino. The weather was great (for the most part) and we had a really well versed/educated tour guide by the name of Gabriella. She drove us around in her car and showed us many historic sites.. as well as some nice places to shop!
Views from San Marino
An ancient Torture Chamber
Another view from the Peak of San Marino
I didn't get many pictures after San Marino because the rain rolled in and we were forced to use umbrella's the rest of the day!
That night was a "dinner on your own" type of night.. so a small group of us walked across the street to a local pizza place for dinner.
Saturday (the next day) was the first day of the Exhibition (the event that this entire trip was planned around). It is an event where several different manufacturers come and display their machines and show demo's to dealers and customers. Most everyone attended except for myself and two other wives. They went out on their own for the day and I went out for a day of shopping with our friend Anna. She lives near Rimini and had spent some time with us on a trip to the US several months earlier. She took me to an outdoor market that takes place on Wednesday and Saturday mornings. It was very interesting! We had been around the same area the day before and it was so empty. There were so many vendors selling shoes, handbags, clothes, etc. that it was overwhelming! I think we walked around 4 times before I decided on a scarf and a pair of shoes.
After shopping, we went out for a traditional Italian lunch. I cannot remember the name of what I had but it was basically a Quesadilla with prosciutto, ruloca (arugula), and stragiotto (I'm not sure of the spelling.. but it was a local type of cheese). It was very good!
From here, Anna dropped me back at my hotel. She had some errands to run for her upcoming wedding. And I was anxious to rest a little and take a long walk on the beach! Rimini is a coastal town so our hotel was conveniently located right on the beach.
The show would continue on into the next day. However, we decided to go ahead and travel back to Venice on Sunday morning so that we could enjoy a little time there before our trip came to an end!
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