If you think that there are no more the witches of once upon a time, we invite you to spend the nights from 20 to 24 June 2008 in San Giovanni in Marignano.

The lovely village in the province of Rimini, will certainly change your mind with the Night of Witches, a great festival all magic, mystery, strange bubos on long noses and besoms parked here and there.

In order to safeguard ancient legends and traditions from oblivion of time, the Municipal Administration celebrates the summer solstice by bewitching citizenship and tourists with the rituals that have long accompanied nature in that particular astral passage.

Along the alleys and squares of the village, from sunset till late in night, you will be fascinated by the evocative performances of popular street theatre that will stage the mysterious, the superstition and the magic of the past.

On the market stalls you will find magical stones, crafts, a lot of garlic and natural products.

Among them, the herbs of St. John, that in the tradition, were picked still laden with dew in the switching between the night and the day of the solstice, when the marriage that at that time joined the sun and the moon made them rich in benign influences.

With some great St. John’s wort at the buttonhole also children will fearlessly approach the focal point of mystery, the cavern of witches who will complete the witchcraft with its fortune-tellers, chiromancers and diviners.

The peak will be reached on the night of 24, the feast of St. John the Baptist, with music, gastronomic stands and the spectacle of bonfires in the valley.

San Giovanni in Marignano, easily reachable with motorway A14 - exit Cattolica, a few kilometers from Riccione, is the ideal place to start the summer with a renewed charm.

After the magical fun of the Night of Witches, we will be happy to welcome you in the best hotels in Riccione where, away from suggestions and spells, you will sleep easy.

Ah! No wonder for the vacuum cleaner that someone has forgotten in the corridor: also witches have made progress!