On the terrace of one of the countless hotels along the Adriatic coast, "Zizi" and his friends observed the ballet of beautiful mechanicals over a bottle of prosecco. On this summer afternoon, vintage cars paraded down the main street of Torre Pedrera, a seaside resort near Rimini (Emilia-Romagna). All of them were vintage, all of them were American, all of them gleaming. "Zizi" is a connoisseur. In his heyday in the 1970s, he used to give his conquests a lift in his Alfa Romeo convertible. The self-proclaimed "Playboy of the Romagna Riviera" claims to have seduced 10,000 women. "That's a load of crap!" his buddies said. "'Zizi' came up with this figure to throw shade on his rival 'Zanza,' who claimed to have put 6,000 chicks in his bed."

Maurizio Zanfanti, aka "Zanza," died of a heart attack in the car where he just had sex with a 23-year-old tourist. He was 63. His funeral in Rimini in 2018 took on the air of a state funeral. In June, the 80^th birthday of "Zizi" – Paolo Cima for his civil status – brought together almost as many people, more than 200, according to the interested party. "There's no one like me," read his T-shirt, which featured a picture of him in swimming trunks pumping up his biceps. Recently, Corriere della Sera portrayed him, with his salt-and-pepper mane, as an "exhausted lion."

The Latin lover handed us several albums with yellowed photos: "Zizi" in fur, on the arms of young German girls; "Zizi" bearded, kissing Scandinavians; "Zizi" at Number One, a local nightclub ... Like many others in the business, the establishment went out of business. The Baia Imperiale, with its eagles and colonnades borrowed from the Roman Empire, is one of the few remaining survivors of the festive years of Romagna tourism.

Slightly decayed beauty

The decline dates back to 1989, according to Enea Conti, the journalist responsible for covering the region for Corriere della Sera. "That year," he said, "the water was infested with 'mucilage' [a gelatinous substance, nicknamed 'sea snot']. And, with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the arrival of low-cost airlines, the Riviera suffered from competition from other destinations. But it's coming back."

To convince us, the reporter arranged to meet us at Bagno Tiki 26, an emblematic Rimini seaside establishment. The manager, Gabriele Pagliarani, invented a persona for himself: He is the Bagnino d'Italia (Italy's "lifeguard"). There he was, posing in a dark blue tank top and shorts, arms open, sunny face smiling, alongside two women in Brazilian carnival outfits. "My daughter, who's studying communications, advised me to open an Instagram profile," said the vibrant 50-year-old. "I travel all along the Adriatic coast, from north to south, meeting my fellow beach-goers. On social media, I show the true face of our profession, welcoming and warm."

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