Piran

The coastline of Slovenia is only 46 kilometers, with only one more or less real beach resort Portoroz. Though there is a beautiful, medieval town on the sea - Piran.

The city is surrounded by a fortress wall, which can be climbed. The wall was built by the Venetians, fearing a Turkish invasion.




Here the city walls are visible from the port.


Since we parked on the mountain, at first we visited the wall. From here, it is better to go down along the IX Korpusa street and get into the territory of St. George's Cathedral (16th century), since it is also located on a hill. Here it is visible, on the right.




There is a good observation deck near the cathedral, from where the central square is visible. You can also climb the tower, but during our visit, it was already closed.


Next we went down to the old city.


The most beautiful place is the central Tartini Square with a monument to the great Italian violinist and composer Giuseppe Tartini. Piran used to be part of the Venetian Republic, and from 1918 to 1947 part of Italy, but now it is the territory of Slovenia.

In the center, on the right, you can see the oldest building in the square - Benečanka (Venetian), built in the 15th century. In the Slovenian language, the letter "B", sounds like in the Cyrillic alphabet "v", and not "b", as in the Latin alphabet.


In the Middle Ages, this place was a port for fishing boats. Over time, important buildings appeared on the embankment in a circle and in 1894 the city authorities decided to bury the port and make a real square.


Now yachts and boats are parked outside the square.




We liked the old city, it's nice to walk here. The architecture is typical Italian, and the atmosphere is the same, although Austria-Hungary also had an impact. In general, Slovenia is somehow not associated with such towns. It's more about mountains and lakes.










These are probably retail stores.


The building of the theater.


Look how beautiful is the old town.


There are no beaches in the city, but you can swim, going down into the water from concrete shores.




If you travel by car, then you can have a problem with the hotels in Piran. There are many of them, but you cannot drive into the city. The nearest large parking lots are quite far away. And if you leave the car and there will be no free shuttle to the central square, then you have to walk a considerable distance with the bags.

Therefore, we stayed at the large family hotel Bioenergy Resort Salinera (booking.com), a 7-minute drive from the city. It has a pleasant location, on the seashore and in the middle of the forest, and of course there is a large parking lot.

Getting there: the nearest parking on the shore is N 45 31.210 E 13 34.046, on the mountain is N 45 31.568 E 13 34.468. If you parked on a mountain, be sure to take a parking ticket with you, since it opens the door. From parking lots there are free shuttles to the central square. The nearest train station is Koper (https://www.slo-zeleznice.si/en). Buses run from Ljubljana (2.5 hours) every hour, from Koper and Izola three times an hour, see the timetable here https://www.ap-ljubljana.si/en/. From Trieste, buses also run every hour (https://www.autostazionetrieste.it/en-us/home). A regular shuttle runs between Portorož and Piran. See the local bus schedule here.