TERRITORY

Rimini territory is in between the southern part of the Po Valley and the Italian mainland. The sea on the east side, the sub-Apennines ridges on the southwest side, undulated slopes ending to the sea and plains on the north side characterize the landscape which appears to be uneven.


Vineyards at the foot of Rocca di Verucchio

Referring to the ISTAT (Central Statistics Office) classification, the 20 communes of the Rimini province are divided into the following areas:
- Flat land including the following communes: Bellaria Igea-Marina, Cattolica, Misano Adriatico, Riccione, Rimini, San Giovanni in Marignano, Santarchangelo di Romagna, over a total surface of 26.470 hectares.
- Hilly region over the following communes: Coriano, Gemmano, Mondaino, Montecolombo, Montefiore, Conca, Montegridolfo, Montescudo, Morciano di Romagna, Poggio Berni, Saludecio, San Clemente, Torriana and Verucchio, over a total surface of 26.900 hectares. The province territory perpendicularly to the coast is divided into three main catchment basins (Marecchia, Conca and Marano) and into four secondary ones (Uso, Rio Melo, Ventena, Tavollo). While parallelly to the sea this territory can be divided into four areas, each of them characterized by a peculiar landscape and features.

1- Middle Hills
This is the inner and more central part of the province that is characterized by great height differences, generally ranging between 200 and 400 m above sea level. There are some higher hills (Gemmano, Montescudo, Torriana, Verucchio), but mainly the territory is undulated and moderately hilly. The steepest slopes are characterized by compact lithoid surfacing which is generally quite stable. In the less steep slopes, agricultural activity is not so widespread and avoids the scattered woodland and bush areas representing a forest heritage quite poor in terms of surface and quality.

2 - Lower Hills
This is the most typical landscape including the hills below 200-m height.
The shapes are rounded and it gradually changes to the lowland. The soil is mainly clayey and sandy-clayey, spontaneous vegetation is quite scattered and forests cover only limited areas. Viticulture and olive-tree growing characterize the landscape.
More or less recent alluvial deposits that are subject to recurrent hydro-geological changes due to the torrential rivers, characterize the bottom of the valleys.


View of the Rocca di Montefiore

The hilly landscape is the most important from an environment point of view and it gradually turns from plains and coast to the lower centre-south Apennines.

3 - Flatland
This area is defined by the inner part of the foothill cones and by the flat coast area. It was originated by alluvial deposits generated by the river flow and is more or less deeply carved by the rivers. Deposits range from gravely to sandy slimy-clayey ones: each of them creates soils very interesting for the soil science and highly fertile. Most of this area is characterized by human presence and urbanization - covering a large area -, so that only a small portion is left to agriculture. Spontaneous vegetation is only in some parts close to the rivers; in some areas it is a properly fluvial landscape thus hiding some aspects linked to the human presence.

4 - Coast
This consists of both sea deposits and of the limited transition area to continental deposits. The lower part, towards the sea, is influenced by the sea action and is characterized by a mainly straight sandy beach only interrupted by the river mouths perpendicular to it.


Sea view from the first Montescudo hills - Rimini

Morphology is first flat and then it changes to continental deposits (morphological shelf). It covers a surface of some hundreds metres and that continuously changes because of both the sea and human action. The beach thinning and restoring represent one of the most delicate problems of the relation between man and the coast environment. So far the building-up of defensive barriers parallel to the coast has represented the solution.


Abstract from "La Viticoltura ed il Territorio della provincia di Rimini" (Viticulture and Territory of the Rimini province) - Technical and economical report attached to the application for the D.O.C. Colli di Rimini recognition.

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