The harbour at sunset.
One evening, a Liberty Lines hydrofoil ferry comes to the mouth of the harbour to discharge passengers. Its route includes Trieste in Italy, Piran in Slovenia, and Rovinj, Porec and Mali Losinj in Croatia
A few steps away from the harbour is the entrance to the large and impressive Tartini Square, or main plaza.
Giuseppe Tartini, born in Piran in 1692, which was then a Republic of Venice, became a violinist of baroque and early classical music, and a composer of over one hundred concertos, mostly for the violin.
He also opened his own school and became a great teacher.
The house in this square that he grew up in now houses a museum, which reflects his life and work and in the center of the square is a monument in his likeness.
Every summer the International Tartini Chamber Music Festival is held in locations throughout Piran and Koper.
And a hotel in the square is also named after him.
There are other grand buildings in the square, such as:
The Venetian House:
A unique feature of Venetian House is its corner balcony. Note all the 'busts' on the railings.
City Hall:
This elaborately decorated building:
These three charming and colourful buildings huddled together:
And the ancient little church of San Pietro, originally build in 1272, then revised in 1818. The bas relief over the door depicts the handing over of the keys to St. Peter.
We spend many a pleasant afternoon or evening in the square, sipping a drink, watching the local children whirling around on their scooters, bicycles and in-line skates while their parents watch from a restaurant. This, too, is where we watch the Statehood Day celebrations from.
Another square. This one near to the market where we shop.
Statehood Day is a national holiday in Slovenia.
It celebrates the day in 1991 when the Slovenian Assembly
passed the Declaration of Independence and the Basic Constitutional Charter on
Sovereignty and Independence.
These two documents laid the legal groundwork for Slovenia's
secession from Yugoslavia.
Independence Day, on the other hand, is celebrated in December.
For two days, we watched the progress of the setup for the evening celebrations. There was a roped off VIP section for supporters of the orchestra, another large seating area for the public, all of the bars and restaurants were full and lots of people standing.
The evening started off with the audience enthusiastically
singing the national anthem.
The philharmonic orchestra was on stage to accompany a variety of singers.
In the evening, the campanile (clock tower) on a hill behind the square provides a beautiful addition to any event. It is associated with the Church of St. George, but is not attached to it.
When the performances are finished, it's off to the marina right outside the square. Workmen have been busy setting up jets and lights in the water. There are no fireworks. The water sprays up through coloured lights and moves in time with music. Every now and then, it's like a bright fireball cuts through the lit-up water. It's quite lovely.
On another day, we climb 130 steps up to the top of the clock tower. Below are some photos from within and from the top of the tower.
Many people who have accommodation very near the square take a promenade that wraps around it to the point of the peninsula. This is filled with restaurants, so people can hang out, swim, eat, swim again and watch the sunsets.
Someone who works with rocks has made the riprap more interesting.
We find a little place at the end of the walkway where you can sink into cushioned wicker chairs to relax and people-watch.
On our last day in Piran we spend a couple of hours with a couple from Louisiana and their three kids (high school age and up) who also enjoyed the wicker chairs.
Rather than walk the promenade around to the point, one can choose a myriad of little alleys to reach your destination. This is one of the things we love about many European cities. Here, there are homes and shops.
The old town is primarily car-free, and permanent residents must use a pay parking lot out near the bus station. Scooters and motorcycles can be in the old town.
Some favourite narrow streets are in the photos below.
It's downhill to this alley, then down steps, around one corner, then another and more down.
The triangle-shaped house below is at the apex of two narrow streets.
We believe this building also has Venetian influence in its architecture.
It must be difficult to grow old in a city like this. Most homes are very narrow so are built up three or four stories. In the hilly parts, people may have to climb a couple of flights of stairs before getting to their home, where more stairs await.
The couple who own the home that we are staying in are getting on in years and we think are on the third floor, and short-term rent apartments on their first and second floors.
We finally walk to the end of our narrow alley only to discover that it ends in a small plaza shared by several homes. It's very peaceful here.
One day, Paul is leaning
in to take a photo of the alley in the photo below when a gentleman walks up behind us and invites us up to
his flat.
We walked up a couple of flights of stone steps, then came
to an entrance gate to his home. We climbed three more flights of stairs to get to his
main living floor that opened out to 3 little patio areas. Apparently, very few
places have outdoor areas like this. His parents had owned it, and he completely
renovated it.
It's quite beautiful.
He's Austrian and spends less than 2 months a year here. We
visited for a couple of hours, then carried on exploring.
More random kindness from a stranger
Most of our beach time is spent turning right, away from the main plaza at the bus station. The promenade here is very long, with fewer restaurants and bars and is therefore more peaceful.
We need to walk through some popular bathing areas to get to where we want to go, but it's worth it.
Where we go;
With these rocky shores, many people relax on concrete. We walk to an area that has some grass. In the photo above, you can see that the city has built in a series of wooden decks to the concrete, which are more comfortable. In the busy area, access to the water is via ladders that land you into deep water. At 'our place', there are steps down into shallow water.
The photo below illustrates just how clear the water of the Adriatic Sea is.
And at this end of the promenade, there is of course another favourite place for a view of the sea, a drink or snack, and a comfortable chair off the hardscape in the beach setting. They make great lemonade.
Outside looking in and Inside looking out.
On the day we climbed up the clock tower, we spotted yet another beach. This one is more hidden away, and we suspect is used mainly by locals who seem well-equipped with chairs and umbrellas. Its much longer than shown in the photo.
Piran is one of the cleanest city we have ever been in. Garbage is picked up every single day, and a street sweeper/washer grooms the streets regularly. There are small electric vehicles that workers can use to get through the narrow alleys.
And a leisure vehicle that navigates the alleys.
The beaches are equally clean. Several times a day, workers empty garbage cans, then walk the beach to pick up anything out of place, such as bits of garbage or even seagull feathers or twigs. They are meticulous.
On another day, nine km walk (see route on map outlined in
orange) is the goal. Piran, in the Slovenian Istria region, is on a peninsula that juts into
the Gulf of Trieste.
We started in Old Town and walked along the Adriatic Sea for
about 4 km. We know now where we will go tomorrow to the beach and swim. Then the
route went inland and up, and up, and up, to Mogoron Hill to pass by the old fortification wall and towers and dropping back down to the
coast.
As Piran prospered and grew, the defensive walls and towers were built in stages from the 7th to early 16th century.
The wall can be partially seen from Tartini Square and partially on this walk, but until we climbed the clock tower, we had no idea how much of it is preserved.
Here too is the Church of St George.
This aerial view is used with permission from Wikimedia Commons under license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/. The photographer is Patrick Giraud.
This church was the lifework of a Venetian stonemason.
Inside the church:
In a courtyard outside of St. George's, sits a chair made from the trunk of a 500-year-old olive tree and a little further on, a harp player's music floats in the air.
The route re-entered Old Town on streets new to us. Window displays had us go in to chat with the potter in this shop, who also sells some distilled beverages. Paul buys a small bottle of a digestive to try. Love his clay Octopi and faces.
Since the Johnny Depp movies, it seems one cannot be in a seaside town and avoid the pirate theme. Below is a cruise boat that people can take for the day, and two different walls painted up.
Speaking of boats, this super yacht parks in the Bay of Trieste on Wednesday and Thursday, before the festivities of the Bezos wedding starting in Venice on Friday. Venice is just past Trieste, which we can see from the beaches here. This wedding is not welcome by all in Venice, and so we suspect these folks are wedding attendees who are leaving it to the last minute to sail in. The day after the wedding it shows up in the bay again.
Paul's birthday often falls when we are travelling, so the most appropriate way to celebrate is by eating special meals. This year, he got lucky. Mussels for lunch by the sea and fish for dinner a short distance from the main plaza. Mussels here are farmed in the Adriatic, so they are plump and delicious. I would love to have the recipe for the sauce they are cooked in. Divine is the only word to describe it.
Dinner in a place new to us. The owner engages with every table.
He tells stories, sings, talks about the food, opens and pours wine, helps the busboys
and brings plates to the tables. Dessert was an incredible dark chocolate
mousse with pistachio cream (that the owner
makes), the olive oil on the table is made by the owner's papa, and the homemade grappa is made by???
At the mention of pistachios, I dream of the croissants here filled with a pistachio cream and ground nuts and/or the pistachio gelato. They are grown in nearby Italy.
On a few occasions, we walk all the way to Portoroz (The Town of Roses). We don't stop there, just get some exercise and the joy of walking along the seaside promenade.
This cat hostel is deeply placed in the shade. On different days, we see a man, then a woman feeding a cat who appears to be the only occupant at this time. The cat is frightened by other people. We don't see any homeless animals in Piran, while there seems to be a fair number of people with pets.
On the way to Portoroz, we pass an old building that has been repurposed. It was once used to store salt, until it was shipped off to market.
The buildings have some educational material posted on the outside that describes how salt was taken from the saltmaker's house to ships that go through the salt pans toward the open sea. Boats were different sizes, shapes, weights and draughts depending on the situation. A boat called a moana was used to transport salt to local warehouses. Boat on left in photo below.
The two former salt pans closest to Piran and Portoroz (Scovlje and Strunjan) are protected now as national parks; however, the salt pans are still active and maintain the cultural heritage and traditional methods of a centuries-old process of using natural crystallization, working by hand and using original tools.
They are one of the most threatened wetlands in the Mediterranean and are therefore a protected ecosystem with diverse species. Finally, they have a significant role in education and tourism. The museum of salt-making gives guided tours. We chose not to go as we have visited salt pans in other areas.
Every day on the water, we see at least a hundred of these little boats on the water, often divided into smaller groups. Young kids learning to sail, we assume, with other boats circling around them. The boat club is on the way to Portoroz. They have a huge swath of waterfront, a big outdoor stage with a screen for projections, a marina of their own and a clubhouse with a kitchen for serving food and drinks.
It appears that they are ready for emergencies on the water.
Portoroz is a resort and spa town with huge hotels, and an abundance of shops and restaurants. It looks like your every whim is catered to. Below are some of the more interesting hotels.
The one below is built right into the rocks.
This one has a marina on its doorstep and is so large that the camera cannot capture all of it.
The Palace Hotel opened in 1910 and is a place where the Royals from the Austro-Hungarian Empire would come to vacation. Today, it remains one of the most luxurious hotels in Slovenia and continues to host statesmen and celebrities.
The spa parts of these hotels incorporates the use of local mud and brine to treat their guests.
One day we get on the bus to visit Izola (pronounced eezo-la), AKA 'The Kingdom of Fish'.
Izola means 'island' in the Italian language, which it once was. For a few short years, the French ruled here (1805-1813). They tore down the fortification walls and used them to fill in the canal that separated the island from the mainland.
This small town has eight beaches on its five km of coastline, one of which has been declared the most beautiful beach in Slovenia.
It's known for fishing, fish processing, plus wine and oil-making; for its terraces by the sea and wooden boats. On a clear day you can see Koper, Trieste and the Julian Alps when they are covered in snow. The fish canning factory has been in operation since 1869.
We only had time to walk old town, the marina and some of the beaches. It would be lovely to get out into the countryside either by bicycle or to go hiking in Strunjan Landscape Park.
A FEW PHOTOS FROM IZOLA
A little market down at the marina.
Both of the products above are from Croatia. The beer. The distillery has shops in a few towns on the peninsula. They make all kinds of liquers, brandies, digestives and appertifs from fruit as well as preserves, soaps, flavoured olive oil and more. We will go to the store in Koper for the next blog post
MISCELLANEOUS PHOTOS PIRAN
In the collage above, the bell is the doorbell for the place we are staying in. Push a button on the outside of the house and the bell inside jangles. To the right of that is the Automat bun maker.
The restaurant above had a big space in the main plaza, but for those who wanted a more intimate stop, there was this little space just off of the plaza
Lovely gate, perhaps by the Church of St. George.
In old towns, there can be a lack of colour with all of the stonework, but here people compensate by painting shutters and doors in brilliant colours. This is only a small sampling.
Olive tree by the sea.
All of the towns in this post have their unique features and beauty, but Piran by far is the one we liked most. While there are many tourists here, it doesn't feel crowded as there is so much shoreline for people to spread out on.
This post has been about three little communities on the Istria Peninsula of Slovenia (green circle on the map below). Next we have a couple of days in Koper, still on the peninsula in Slovenia, then off to Trieste on the Italian Istria Peninsula.
