Rimini

Rimini lies where the Via Flaminia reaches the Adriatic, the Roman Ariminum where Julius Caesar addressed his legions after crossing the Rubicon. In 1295 the Malatesta defeated the rival Parcitadi and made Rimini the capital of a signoria that for about two centuries dominated a wide territory, reaching to Sansepolcro, Sestino and Senigallia.

The best-known Malatesta lord was Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, who ruled from 1432. He was an unscrupulous condottiere who changed sides between the pope, the Sforza, Florence and Venice, and also a great patron who built the Tempio Malatestiano and Castel Sismondo. In 1463 Federico da Montefeltro defeated him for the pope. After his death in 1468 his sons fought over the city, and the last lords fell with the dynasty. In 1503, after Cesare Borgia lost Romagna, Venice occupied Rimini, only to be driven out by Pope Julius II in the war of the League of Cambrai.