Over two hundreds thousands years ago the territory where today the city of Riccione stands was arid, cold and inhabited by enormous herbivorous animals, possibly mammoths. The most ancient traces of human settlements of farm villages in the ancient Neolithic period have been discovered throughout the ages in the areas that today are included within the municipality of Misano, which border the south on Riccione: they made up of ruins of built-up areas that date back to around the end of the II millennium B.C. (Copper Age). Along the
Flaminia Way
, which was already used in the early Bronze Age as a way of transit, groups of men and women with connections to the Adriatic area settled. The historical importance of this road is also confirmed by the recent discoveries concerning a large urban settlement of over 4 thousands square meters, mostly constituted of rectangular-shaped houses, with ditches and drainage-holes that clearly testify to the highly developed structure of this social and economical community. By the beginning of the Iron Age The Villanoviana civilization had already arisen in the area, which had is centre in Verucchio. It was a civilization characterized by the founding and increase of private property, which immediately divided the society into classes. It was the decline of Verucchio that favoured the arrival of the first ethnic population, later ostracized from the population of
Rome
. Around 295 B.C. a regeneration of the area began . Since the birth of the Roman colony of Ariminium (Rimini today), many Roman families began settling in this area. Along the
Flaminia Way
, which will become the main arterial route, there are many traces of an inhabited nucleus over a long period of time that confirms the importance of the
Flaminia Way
as an attraction and motivating force for the settlement of productive activities. The main changes of the territory were caused by the Barbarian invasion starting from the III century. The fall of the
Western Roman Empire
overlapped with an unfavourable climatic period that, being particularly cold, determined environmental variations that caused the steady decrease of settlements starting from the beginning of the Middle Ages.
