Michael Edwards explores why Emilia Romagna is dubbed the bread basket of Italy.

The Emilia Romagna region along Italy’s Adriatic coastal stretch is impressive. Miles and miles of soft sandy beaches, all of them clean as a whistle and family friendly. This is the thing about most Italian resort beaches, they are set up perfectly.From Lido di Volano in the north by the Po Delta to Cattolica in the south close to the border with the Marche region.There are play areas for kids where parents can sit and relax and still keep an eye on the little ones, excellent clean toilets and wash rooms and plenty of available beds and umbrellas.

Considering it was well into the early hours, Rimini seemed to have absolutely no intention of going to bed. It was staying up and having a ball; all the shops were open, the bars were doing great business and all along the beach in each direction you could only see a sea of pink. Pink Night is something a little special in Rimini. Not, as you might first think, a celebration of anything remotely gender based, but simply a celebration of a summer version of New Year’s Eve.

Aida was staring intently at me and explaining his unbridled passion for Verdi, so too for that matter, was La Boheme.  La Traviata would have joined in the discussions but due to his advancing years was content to just sit and let his younger contemporaries take centre stage. In fact, I would think all 27 of Verdi’s works would have wanted to have their say given the opportunity. Let me just add at this point, these famous compositions were not Verdi’s original pieces, but very real gentlemen. They were life members of the Parma “Club of 27” and I was an honoured guest at their exclusive premises in the heart of Parma’s old town just a few miles from the great man’s home town of Busseto.