Piran/Pirano, our Mediterranean pearl

Let me introduce you one of Slovenia's most picturesque towns

Panoramic photo of Piran (Source: Portoroz.si).

Piran (Italian Pirano ) is one of Slovenia's most famous towns and it's also said to be the most beautiful. It's also the smallest among the famous old Venetian troika, the bigger ones are Izola and Koper, which I have introduced before. What's so special about Piran? Well, the first thing is obvious: The town was built on a small peninsula. And that historic part is completely intact. You won't find modern buildings in that part of Piran, which is great. When you walk around this town in 2010, you will feel as if you're in the year 1492. Piran is like an open museum.

Click here for a bigger map

The interesting thing about Piran is, that its origins are unknown. But every historian agrees, Piran is very very old. The peninsula was already inhabited by Romans in 2nd century BC. The name is said to (most likely) come from Greek "pyrranos", which means "red", because of the red stones commonly found in the town's area (source). The Latin name of Piran was Pyrrhanum (source). From 1283 until 1797 Piran came under the Venetian rule and became a very rich town in this part of Istria through trade. A very important part of life for the people of Piran were the Sečovlje salt works. Many would live in one of the houses there (called fontaniggia) during summer and gather salt and live in the old part of Piran during winter. Piran is also famous for being the birthplace of Giuseppe Tartini, an Italian composer from the 18th century. Piran's main square is named after him.

✰ Our Piran

After the trouble with the hostel, we decided to go back to the old part to do some sightseeing. Luckily there was a bus station near the house we stayed and the buses around 7pm were quite frequent, so we quickly got one and in 15min we were back at the Tartini square.

This famous square used to be a mandrač (a small harbour), but because it was dirty and stinky and threatening the health of the citizens, it was filled up with sand from 1894 on and it became the biggest square in Piran soon after.

Another angle of Tartini square.

This square was really lively when we visited. You had kids and teens (mostly from Ljubljana) riding roller blades here, people sitting and taking a break on the benches, tourists either taking photos or sitting in one of the cafés and observing the happening, locals chatting, old men playing chess. This is really the heart of Piran.

We decided to go up to the St. George's church (Cerkev Sv. Jurija).

We soon enjoyed the marvelous view over the roofs of Piran's houses.

Cerkev Sv. Jurija (St. George's church) from 12th and 14th century (source).

The church again.

The main part of the church is separated from the tower.

Part of the old wall and fortification of Piran on the left, St. George's church on the right.

The entrance of St. George's church.

The view from near the church is beautiful on every side.

Another view on the Adriatic sea.

Piran, a Mediterranean pearl.

My dear girl over Piran. Delightful.

Tartini square as seen from near the St. George's church.

When we went down, we saw a boy playing Chinese yo-yo and my girl was surprised. His skills were not bad.

St. Clement's church (Cerkev Sv. Klementa) stood here in 13th century already.

The current form is from the 18th and 19th century (source).

The church is located at the very tip of the Piran peninsula.


It started to get dark, so we decided to return back to Tartini square and then take a bus and go home. We walked slowly and took some more photos.

Hare Krishna singers on the street. I felt like I was in India for a little while.

The St. Clement's church at the end is one of Piran's landmarks.

Many good restaurants along the southern promenade Prešernovo nabrežje.

A small square on the way back.

The town hall of Piran at night.

The Tartini square at night. Our best shot.

✰ Another blunder

Soon after we finished with sightseeing, we decided to go back. It was already close to 9 pm, so we decided to take the free shuttle bus back to the station near our house. Once on the bus, we wait and wait, but nothing happened. The driver starts to call something and from that conversation I found out that the engine didn't start. It was obvious, that we won't go anywhere with that bus, so we went out and tried to find another. The other one was not a free one, but I had to go inside and ask the driver, if he goes the direction where we wanted to go. But frankly, I wasn't able to tell him where exactly I am staying, because I wasn't really sure where our room was. So there we were, tired and angry. No bus back, the only choice we had was either cab or walking. I wanted to walk, I was strong enough, but my girlfriend urged me to call the girl, who works for the hostel, to ask her friend (the guy who picked us up with the silver BMW), to pick us up again. That made me moody, because I thought she won't help us and I felt awkward to call her. While we walked slowly, wehad an argument over this. I said I'd rather take a cab, but my girlfriend refused, she didn't want to pay. In the end she called that girl and told her our situation, but she only could offer us calling a cab. I knew this will happen, but well, my girlfriend, she likes to try everything before giving up. In the end we decided to walk back. We were mad tired, it took us about 30min uphill and after several discussions we finally reached home. We slept soon after.

In conclusion: All that didn't spoil our impression of Piran. It's a beautiful place. We just weren't lucky with the hostel and unfortunately it was our fault. Next time we'll be smarter, that's for sure. Piran is one of the most beautiful towns in this part of the world and it's definitely worth a visit.. or two.. or three... Come and visit it, too.

My rating of Piran:

Great place for photos ✰✰✰✰✰

Well preserved and clean ✰✰✰✰✰

Toilets, parking, souvenirs ✰✰✰✰✰

Friendly to tourists ✰✰✰✰✰

Finally arrived in Piran! :Before [Slovenia Tour 2010] Next: From Koper to Trieste>>

Useful links: [Piran.si, Piran Burger.si, Piran Wiki][My Slovenia page]

[All photos by MKL, 2010, except the first]

Finally arriving in Piran!

And how the hostel messed up our booking and we landed somewhere else

A girl in Piran eating ice cream and enjoying the view.

Piran is along with Bled one of Slovenia's most famous destinations and one of the loveliest small towns we have. I mean, check this greeting card! Isn't it beautiful? The whole town was built on a small peninsula. The streets are so narrow there, the old center is closed for cars, only buses, delivery vans and locals with special permissions are allowed to enter.

That's why when we arrived in Piran from Portorož, we had to find parking for over night somewhere outside the historic center and then walk to our hostel, which had to be found there. Luckily, they provide many parking lots upon entering Piran. We found a big garage, parked our car (we paid 12 Eur for 24h) and then walked downhill to the old center.

Walking to Piran's center. This road is recently renovated. It took us about 30 min to reach there, because we took tons of photos and enjoyed the views.

Finally close to the main part of the old center.

There's the church. And the church is always in the center.

The long stretch of Piran's old center: Very picturesque.

Marina Piran.

My girl posing in front of the marina and the old Piran.

Marina again.

We were headed for the main square in Piran named Tartini square.

And finally arriving at Tartinijev trg (or Tartini square).

✰ The Hostel blunder

We were so relieved, when we reached at the old town, but it was late and we were tired, so we tried to find our hostel as soon as possible. Interestingly, in most of these old Mediterranean towns, there are only house numbers but no names of the streets. So basically it's like a maze. And we didn't have a map of Piran at hand, so I asked some old men, if they can help me with the directions. They were friendly and sent me in the right way. After some extensive walking we finally found the hostel, which was located in a very narrow backstreet. We go up to the second floor and the girl, who runs it, greets us. Everything was old and shaky. We booked that hostel, because it was cheap (25 Eur/Person) and because it was located in the old town. But then things changed. The girl started to mumble something about things not going right with the online booking and that we will have to go somewhere else. When I tried to figure out where we gonna sleep that night, she seemed so confused. She said a friend will come and pick us up with a car and that we'll be accommodated outside the historic center. I wasn't very pleased about all this, but well, what could I do?

We also had to walk to the rampa and the friend of that girl picked us up. We went uphill somewhere above Piran and then turned in a side road between some orchards and houses where local people live. So basically we stayed at that guy's home. That was an adventure we had not anticipated. The guy just gave us some towels and showed us where is what in the house and then he rushed off. We never heard of him again. Our room (click on the photo above to enlarge) was not really clean and not really new, but we had a nice balcony with a view on the sea.

The balcony.

Well, we'd rather stay in the old center, but I guess it wasn't meant to be. We decided to take a little rest, showered and then went back to the old town. It was getting late already, so we hurried up. But there was another problem: How to go back there again? We didn't wanna walk like over 30min again, our legs were mad tired already. Luckily there was a bus station five minutes away from the house we stayed. We waited for a little while and luckily the bus came and took us to the center. 10 minutes later we were at Tartini square again happily taking tons of photos. But then we had another problem, when we wanted to go back to our house in the evening.

More about that in my next post.

This is the road to our house, where we stayed overnight.

We found comfort in the beautiful sunset we saw just before we went out.

Well, it was weeks after this trip, where we realized, that my girlfriend mistook the hotel. That's why the girl seemed clueless, so did we. Despite the hostel blunder and the latter problems with coming home, we still had a great time in Piran. We'll surely revisit and make sure we go to the right hostel next time.

In my next post I will introduce the beauties of Piran to you.

Portorož :Before [Slovenia Tour 2010] Next: Piran, Mediterranean pearl>>

[My Slovenia page][All photos by MKL, 2010]