Today they call it Stadio Romeo Neri.
You look at it from the outside — the concrete main stand, the athletics track, the red-and-white lettering on the grandstand — and you think: simple story.
Football. Matches. Serie B. Rimini winning. Rimini losing.
But it wasn’t just a football pitch.
Before there was a match. Before there was a team. Before the first ball ever rolled across that grass — the area where the Romeo Neri stadium now stands was a meadow. And it already had a name: Prato della Sartona.
A name that smells like the countryside. The 1700s. Farmers hauling hay.
Instead, it hides a story that still sends a chill down your spine.
The Contessa, the Sanctuary, and the Bones
Teresa Sartoni. A Rimini contessa. Born 1760.
In 1812 she became the owner of a vast plot of land outside the city gates — the strip where the stadium, the Palazzetto dello Sport, and the Park of Remembrance now intersect. Back then it wasn’t “downtown.” It was countryside. The outskirts. The place Rimini’s folk went for a stroll when they needed to see something besides walls.
The contessa decided to build a villa right there.
Too bad that for over a thousand years, the ancient sanctuary of San Gaudenzo had stood on that exact spot. A church that had been the city’s religious landmark since the Early Middle Ages.
She had it demolished.
And underneath — beneath the stones of the sanctuary — human bones appeared.
Not an archaeological discovery. The remains of Rimini’s people, buried there in the centuries-old tradition: the dead close to the living, inside churches, in small cemeteries next to sanctuaries.
Napoleon’s Edict of Saint-Cloud — extended to Italy in 1806 — had already forbidden those burials. But the bones stayed underground, for decades. Ugo Foscolo wrote Dei Sepolcri in 1806, right after that edict.
The people of Rimini, when they passed the contessa’s new villa, quickened their step. That villa was an alien body. An ominous place. People crossed themselves.
Maybe they’re just stories. Maybe legends. But the name “Prato della Sartona” — the Contessa’s Meadow — stuck in the popular memory for over two centuries. Even today — in the bars of Marina Centro — some “true” Rimini locals still say it. E pre’ dla Sartona.
From Orphanage to Racetrack: The Flaminio Hippodrome
After the contessa’s death in 1832, the land passed to a female religious order. They founded the Pio Felice orphanage. Standard practice back then: nobles left property to the Church. The nuns brought in the children. The villa became an institute.
But the meadow — that meadow — stayed a meadow.
And in Rimini, like in every Italian city at the turn of the century, a meadow meant sport. It meant races. It meant horses.
In 1911, at the edge of the Prato della Sartona, the new Flaminio Hippodrome was built. It replaced the old San Gaudenzo racetrack — which actually had nothing to do with the church the contessa demolished, but with the San Gaudenzo district where horses had been running for years.
The people of Rimini gathered there for the races. The gallops. The bets. Sundays were a social ritual. The contessa’s meadow — first cursed, then forgotten — was now the place to go for fun.
Life in Rimini has always had the gift of flipping places around.
1933 — The Stadio del Littorio
The hippodrome lasted twenty years.
In 1932 the municipality decided: a stadium where the racetrack stood. The city was growing. Football was becoming the sport of the masses. Rimini wanted its own home.
Construction began in January 1933. Designed by engineer Virginio Stramigioli. Exactly one year to build. The result: a concrete velodrome, three separate stands seating four thousand, three gyms, an athletics track and field area.
They inaugurated it — as was the custom then — under the name Stadio del Littorio.
On June 2, 1934, the facility hosted the finish of a Giro d’Italia stage. The cyclists rode onto that brand-new track, under the city’s eyes. It was the first time the Prato della Sartona became a national stage.
And Rimini — the team — started playing there.
Romeo Neri — The Gymnast Who Made Rimini Dream
After the war, the stadium changed its name. From Del Littorio to Comunale. It sounded temporary — and it was.
Soon after, the city decided to name it after its greatest athlete: Romeo Neri.
Who was Romeo Neri?
A Rimini gymnast. The city’s first athlete to compete in an Olympics. At the 1932 Los Angeles Games — two years before the contessa’s meadow became a stadium — Neri won three gold medals: individual all-around, parallel bars, rings. Three golds in a single edition.
It wasn’t just a record. It was a statement: Rimini existed on the world’s sports map.
Neri was also four-time Italian absolute champion. A silent legend, whom the city honored by giving his name to its temple of local football.
Curva Est, Baseball, and the Italian Super Bowl
The stadium grew with the city. In the 1950s the Distinti grandstand was built. In 1976, for Rimini’s first — historic — promotion to Serie B, the Curva Est was inaugurated. October 17, against Cagliari. A day the fans still remember.
But the Romeo Neri didn’t host only football.
Until 1973 — when the Stadio dei Pirati opened — Rimini Baseball played there. Baseball games on the Contessa’s Meadow. Try picturing that.
In the 1980s and 1990s the Romeo Neri became the stage for American football: three editions of the Italian Super Bowl (1984, 1987, 1990) were played on that field. In 1993, a semifinal of the Women’s European Football Championship.
It wasn’t a stadium. It was a container of stories. Every sport left a trace.
The New Millennium — Between Artificial Turf and Vasco Rossi
The Curva Est was removed in 1989 to make room for the athletics track. Fans moved to the Distinti. In 1999, a new Curva Est — made of metal stands — rose behind the track.
In 2005, upgrades for Serie B brought capacity to around ten thousand seats.
But the dream of a new stadium — more modern, bigger — never took off. Owner Vincenzo Bellavista dreamed it. Bureaucracy killed it. His death in 2007 put the final word on it.
And so the Romeo Neri stayed. Doing its job. Day after day.
In 2015, the synthetic turf arrived. In 2016, the athletics track was redone. In 2019, lighting was upgraded to Serie C standards.
And then — June 2023 — Vasco Rossi. The soundcheck and the zero date of his tour. The stadium full. Music flooding out of those concrete walls, louder than it had ever been. The Prato della Sartona playing Vasco.
If anyone had told Contessa Teresa this in 1812, she wouldn’t have believed it.
The Orphanage Becomes a Sports Hall
Meanwhile, the contessa’s villa — built after the demolition of San Gaudenzo, that villa of bones that became the Pio Felice orphanage — was still there.
Until 1972.
That year the building was demolished. Where it once stood — where the Flaminio Sports Hall now rises — people play basketball. The children the orphanage housed are now old men and women. Nobody remembers the bones underground anymore.
But e pre’ dla Sartona — someone still says it.
Romeo Neri Stadium — Facts & Figures
Current capacity: 9,768 seats. Main Stand: 1,193. Distinti: 3,225. Curva Est: 1,639. Curva Ovest: 2,313. Field dimensions: 105 x 65 meters. Synthetic turf.
It’s the largest sports facility in the city. It has seen promotions and relegations, joys and heartbreaks, thousands of people hugging in the rain.
It has seen it all, really.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Romeo Neri Stadium
Where is the Romeo Neri Stadium located?
The Romeo Neri Stadium is at Piazzale del Popolo, 3 in Rimini, south of the historic center, a few minutes from the Marina Centro seafront.
How many seats does the Romeo Neri Stadium have?
Current capacity is 9,768 seats, distributed across the main stand, side stands, grandstands, and curves.
When was the Romeo Neri Stadium built?
Construction began in January 1933 and finished about a year later, in 1934. The area was known as Prato della Sartona, named after Contessa Teresa Sartoni, who owned the land from 1812.
Who was Romeo Neri?
Romeo Neri was a Rimini-born gymnast who won three gold medals at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympic Games. He was the city’s first athlete to compete in an Olympics. The stadium was named after him following his death.
Can you visit the Romeo Neri Stadium?
The stadium is open to the public during Rimini Calcio’s home matches. For guided tours or special events, it’s best to contact the club or the Municipality of Rimini.
I know, it sounds strange: a cursed meadow that became a stadium. A demolished sanctuary that became a sports hall. An orphanage that became a basketball court.
But that’s how it works in Rimini. Places don’t stay what they were. They transform. They recycle themselves. They change their soul — even if the bones underground stay right where they are.
Every time you walk into the Romeo Neri — for a match, for a concert, to take your kid to their first game — remember you’re walking on two thousand years of history. Under the synthetic turf there’s a racetrack. Under the racetrack a meadow. Under the meadow a contessa, a sanctuary, bones.
And under all of it, Rimini. The real one. The one you never stop discovering.
You know where to find me. At the Aqua Hotel.
