The Italian Adriatic isn't only Venice and Rimini with their beaches. Between them lies a stretch of old fishing harbours, medieval towns and 5th-century mosaics - which most tourists skip and which the Balkans almost never visits in an organised trip.

Rimini is the starting point. Behind the well-known 20th-century beaches - the ones from the films with Sophia Loren and a young Fellini - sits an old centre with the Arch of Augustus, the Malatestian Temple with frescoes by Giotto and Piero della Francesca, and the Fellini Museum housed in the Castel Sismondo. It isn't an urban heart for postcards, but for a few hours of walking.

A few kilometres further on is Santarcangelo di Romagna. A medieval town with walls, narrow cobbled streets, houses in pastel colours. Here is the Stamperia Marchi printworks where they still use a wooden printing machine from 1633 and a 17th-century secret recipe for natural dyes on textile. It isn't a reconstruction for tourists - it's a working artisanal workshop.

Cesenatico and Cervia are fishing towns with harbours designed by Leonardo da Vinci. Cervia has a salt-making tradition going back centuries, and the MUSA museum and the Sapore di Sal festival open up the same secrets the Venetians taught. The Balkans understand this - salt, fish and a small town that has lived to the same rhythm of the sea for three centuries.

Ravenna is the crown of the trip. They call it "the world capital of mosaics", and they aren't exaggerating: eight UNESCO early Christian monuments, among them the basilica of San Vitale with one of the most beautiful early Christian decorations in Europe. Here too is the tomb of Dante Alighieri, who died in exile in this town and not in his native Florence.

A short trip leads to Comacchio - a small town built on 13 islands, in canal style, with an eel-fishing tradition kept up for centuries. Ferrara closes the loop: a Renaissance city planned by the Este family, with 9 kilometres of walls perfect for a cycling ride through the old town's geometry.

Why doesn't the Balkans see this? Because the agencies sell Venice and Rome, not Romagna. We all know about Campania and Tuscany, a bit about the region around Bologna. And meanwhile, 200 kilometres south of Venice lies a similarly rich historical stretch - with half the tourists and three times better restaurants. Maybe the next May long weekend should be booked the other way.