- Piran

Tartini Square in Piran, Slovenia -
using water color  software

For seven days we've been staying in Piran, Slovenia. Two of the stops on our full trip are 7 days long (relatively longer than most). Thankfully, Piran was one of those extended stays. We really enjoyed it here. It's a slow-paced town that offers everything we need including great swimming, excellent food and a lot of local things to do/enjoy, combined with an interesting history.
Last night a local band played for 6 hours until 2am. We enjoyed the "groove" from our deck as we sipped wine. Meanwhile, the girls were out on the town with some of their local friends.

Piran has a nice central square named after the violin virtuoso Giuseppe Tartini who was born here. The town square has a statue of Giuseppe and his home is amongst the oldest buildings in town. According to Wikipedia, Tartini was the first known owner of a violin made by Antonio Stradivari in 1715. Today, Tartini's most famous work is the "Devils Trill Sonata", a solo sonata that contains a number of technically challenging sections, even by modern standards. There is a myth that Tartini had six digits on his left hand allowing him to perform these difficult works.

Giuseppe Tartini statue

Tartini Square

Piran has an excellent farmers market and good restaurants. Today, our last day in town, we watched a waiter serve two sea bass to customers at a nearby table. It was quite a process since it was baked in a blanket of salt. Once cooked, extracting it from the salt and serving it took 30 minutes of the waiters time, as he meticulously removed the fish from the salt.

Our "digs" for seven days.

We really enjoyed our home here. It was a very nice place with incredible views and a large comfortable living space. The rooftop deck was an outstanding place to watch sunsets, listen to the local music and relax. The owners were extremely organized, helpful and responsive. The town was very safe for the girls to explore on their own.

View of peninsula from inside home

Evening from the deck

Sunset over the Adriatic from the deck

Fishing supplies in the harbor

Piran is still very much a heavily utilized fishing village. The locals are very nice and most of them speak some, if not fluent, English. Although this was not expected it made our visit easier. Most of them actually spoke multiple languages and generally asked us, "Deutsch? English?" before starting a conversation. Then without a hesitation, they would turn to someone nearby and fluently converse in Italian, only to finish in their native tongue with a neighbor or friend before moving on. Impressive when you come from the U.S. where we generally speak only one or two languages.

At the Mercatora (Grocery Store) they charge you for a bag so you quickly remember to bring your own. They also don't bag your groceries. They simply start ringing up the next customer as your groceries are still sitting on the counter top. It's entirely up to you to ensure your pasta doesn't get commingled with the next customers cigarettes. 

As we were paying for our purchases at the local farmers market we commented on our surprise that they were open because it was a national holiday. The owner of the stand replied with something we didn't fully understand, but could clearly tell it meant something like, "$&%, we never close." He followed this with, "...every second day is a holiday in this country." On a somewhat related note I was talking to a local resident about work hours and job expectations. He informed me that his father worked for the Ljubljana Police Department for 35 years. "In all those years", he explained, "he never got more than a single week off at a time, and those weeks were extremely rare." Back home we talk about the extended European Holiday as though the entire place shuts down for August. Clearly this is not the case - particularly in this region. Throughout our week in Piran we noticed the same waiters or waitresses working tirelessly serving maybe 30-35 tables, even in the pouring rain when 90% of those tables were outside. The waiters and waitresses would carry the food, sometimes 50 meters back and forth, while precariously holding an umbrella under their chin to keep the plates of food dry.  Hard to reconcile sometimes when we are here on holiday.

Since being in Slovenia we have had mostly good weather, but there were two days when we were surprised by sudden downpours. Both times I was impressed by the sudden change and the force of the downpour.

On Friday, we drove into Croatia wine country and did some tasting, including a nice Malvazija (dry white) from this regions signature grape. All of the tasting was good especially the Malvazija and Sauvignon Blanc blend.

Momjan, Croatia

The wine is reasonably priced here. We've been picking up nice bottles for $4. After our wine tasting we stopped at a restaurant (Stari Podrum) in the same area and enjoyed lunch. The truffle pasta, asparagus soup and fresh roasted veggies were outstanding. One of the best meals we have had in Europe. Later that same day we drove further South to the coastal town of Rovinj. We all agreed that Rovinj was not for us - too big, too crowded, too pushy. We were happy to get back to Piran.

Piran was also a great running town. I snuck in three morning runs. One of them included a trek through the narrow streets and up to the church.

Strolling the Venetian streets of Piran

The church itself is a small one by European standards, but interesting none-the-less. For 1.5 Euros you could take a self-guided tour.  Shannon and I were the only ones there at the time. We also toured the castle for an additional Euro. We saw excellent views of the town, as well as beautiful artwork, and a very rare cross (1 of 4 in the world) that had been excavated on the church site.

The Church

View of church and peninsula from castle

Looking Southeast from church

Looking Northeast from the Church

Inside the church

The cross found on site

The climb up the church bell tower was fun. The stairs were certainly safe, but they were nothing like you would see back home. The wooden construction seemed like boards, nails and brackets had been added without thought of location or specific need. The whole thing shook and wavered as you climbed. One young boy came up while we were in the tower and was peering over the edge in a way that was unnerving. As we were just finishing up in the bell tower the bells chimed and left us both with ringing ears.

Hiking up the bell tower

One view from the bell tower

The girls made some friends in Piran and seemed to shift even more to a night time schedule going out on the town with their friends and staying out late. They hung out at the beach, in the square, and around the castle. They miss their friends at home though. Last night their Piran friends taught them how to say, "I missed you" in preparation for getting home. It's, "pogrešala sem te".

Overall, the girls seem to be making the most of their time, and soaking in the local fun.

Ali enjoying her gelato but not wanting her picture taken

Ready to hit the town

All and all, Piran is a great town to spend a week in, and we truly enjoyed Slovenia - at least what we saw of it. We know there is a lot more to see of this great country and would not hesitate to return, especially to see more of Ljubljana, the Julian Alps, and the Slovenian Hinterlands.

Tomorrow we leave Piran and head for the Dolomite Mountains in Northern Italy where we will stay for 5 days. Prior to leaving Slovenia we plan on hitting the Skocjan ("shkoatsyan") caves for a guided tour. Assuming we make that sidetrip, I will add a one last Slovenia post to this blog.