I was planning for quite a while to go to Piran. It’s the most beautiful Slovenian town according to my opinion and even not being from there, it feels like home. I may have visited it around 5 times and during my last visit -a couple of years ago- I spent 3 weeks there, exploring every single street of it. I walked also to the close town of Portorož, yet it didn’t fascinate me (that) much. I left a piece of myself in Piran and therefore I just had to take Juanpi there one day. And this day finally came, a few days ago.

Planning the trip

One thing that was clear to me from the very start, was the fact that I didn’t want to go by car. Not only that I dislike driving on Slovene highways, I also know that is not a piece of cake to find a parking place in Piran this time of the year. Hence I wanted to avoid this unnecessary stress, I decided we’d take the bus. There are numerous buses heading for Piran daily, the only thing you have to keep in mind is that here some lines are shared by different companies, which can result in limited timetable options for the way back, if buying a return ticket. If you want to make it sure you’ll get the seats, you can buy the tickets in advance – same as I did. It’s not cheap, around 40€ for two return tickets, departing from Ljubljana.

Don’t miss the bus!

If you decide to depart from Ljubljana, I advise you to reach the bus station before time. Ljubljana’s public transport is not too reliable, as we have experienced so many times already. Of course, it had to happen this time, too. Lesson learnt: consider the bus driver to behave not according to your expectations. Ours suddenly decided to make a mobile phone pause before departing, followed by a smoke and we were waiting for him in the bus for about 25 mins. The result: we reached the station 2 mins too late.
Luckily, we were able to exchange the tickets for the next bus. Yet we had to wait for 2 more hours. In case that ever happens to you too, I recommend a walk around Miklošičeva street, not far away. You might learn new uses of English grammar…

All of your base… are belong to us

In search for a comforting cup of coffee and tea, we stopped by Triglav, a popular city spot not more than 5 mins of walk from the station.

Entertained by fearless sparrows that were impatiently waiting for the crumbs of croissants left on our plates, we forgot the inconvenient bus experience and happily headed back for the station.

The trip

The bus was full of tourists. Expect a more or less comfortable, air-conditioned trip of 2 hrs and a half or so (depending on the route of your bus). We left the Ljubljana-Koper highway at the exit for Postojna and then continued the trip via local towns, which really was to my liking. I tried to take a photo of Nanos, the highest peak of our Littoral region (1480m) but there was always some obstacle on the way and the bus window wasn’t a perfect example of cleanliness either.

The first view to the sea was very exciting and it meant we were not far away anymore. The bus made stops in Koper, Izola, Portorož and in the final destination – Piran. We arrived!

If you are new to town, I recommend you to stop by Maona tourist service, located on the way from the bus station to the town centre. If you are looking for an accommodation or just for some info, that’s the place to go. They sell useful Piran maps – a photo guide which can be quite handy especially if you’re not familiar with the town and its labyrinth streets. The guide offers not only a detailed map of street, it features also a multilingual presentation and description of town’s history, accommodation and sights.

In case you reach Piran by car, the wisest thing you can do is to park it at the big secured parking at the town’s entrance. Parking there is not only cheaper than in the centre (where the number of cars is limited), there is also a free bus service to and back from town every fifteen minutes.
Update: from April 2010 on, it is no longer possible to park in the centre.  You can now park  at the town’s entrance, in a multi-storey car park (Fornače) which was built last year. A bus (free of charge) will take you from there to the Piran centre - if you however decide to walk there, it will take 10′ or 15′ at most.

The most famous resident of Piran

Yes, you could guess – it’s Giuseppe Tartini, mathematician, music teacher and virtuouso violinist, who was born in Piran in 1692 (died 1770 in Padova, Italy). The house of his birth is located next to the Venetian house and is today home to the head office of the Piran Italian Community.  Tartini composed mostly violin concerts and sonatas, being the Devil’s Trill Sonata the most famous of his works; a demanding piece of composition for violonists. More of Tartini and his life you can read in Wikipedia.

What to do and where to go

The first thing we did after checking in for accommodation, was making a walk along the shore where the most of hotels and restaurants are located. It was pretty hot for walking around as it was in the middle of afternoon but I just had to take some photos since our stay in Piran was limited to 24 hrs.

This is a dream place for every enthusiastic photographer. I took a bit more than 200 photos myself. Piran is offering so many unique views that it was difficult to place the photo camera inside the bag. And every single view offers so many various shades at different time of the day that I was returning to the same place all over again. One of the most beautiful ones was the early morning view. It really worths getting up a but earlier, when there are almost no people outside yet, and you can take a walk up to St. George’s church and to the Town Walls. Another magnificent view awaits you there,  a view that embraces the whole town.

If you are not that much fond of getting fried under the sun, you can visit the local Aquarium, located next to the Tartini theater, or you can head for the marine museum. We didn’t manage to visit the latter. There was simply not enough time for everything, so the museum still remains on our “things-to-see” list.

Naturally, swimming, walking and photo taking makes you hungry and thirsty. But no worries about that, ’cause there are plenty of lovely restaurants where you can refill your belly. Living by the seaside influences consequently the local cuisine; if you ever come to Piran you must try their fish and seafood specialties. For me that means eating things I rarely do, Ljubljana namely isn’t a good place for that. And so I treated myself to a tasty plate of noodles, shrimps and mushrooms. Njami!

For those of you with a sweet tooth, there is a nice selection of fruit cups and ice creams available to embellish your day. Just sit back in a cosy chair with your favourite nibble, a splendid view to the sea and relax – could you really need anything else?

It was hard to say goodbye to Piran. It just gets into your heart and stays there. But we knew we would come back and we are looking forward to it very much!