Trip Review: Picture Perfect Piran Slovenia
With only 47km of coastline, Slovenians are extremely proud of every centimeter! Standing as a pearl in the Adriandric, Piran is picture perfect! With fresh seafood, huge Italian influences in pizza, gelato, and pasta, and small cobblestone streets, Piran is perfect for a weekend visit. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate and bring sunshine rather than our gloomy rainy weather.
Read about our first day exploring Slovenia’s wine region and how we planned for this Piran trip!
Parking in Piran
Because Piran does not allow cars, we had to park outside the city. There are several easy options, but it does require brief research ahead of time! We parked at Garage Fornace because it was close to the sea and within walking distance.
Travel Tip: Don’t lose or get your parking ticket wet! We accidentally did and it caused a big delay when we tried to leave.
Pizza in Piran
Since we were starving and hangry was about to set in, we briskly walked to the pizza place. Thankfully, Piran is awfully tiny and we not only beat my hangry-ness and the rain! We found this great Pizzeria Petica during my research from a trusty source so I had high hopes!
Because we were all starving, we each ordered our pizza. I had the spicy diabolo, MF ordered a boring tomato and rocket pizza, while Daniel went rogue with a massive calzone. Unsurprisingly, it was delicious and we all finished these massive pizzas!
Travel Tip: Listen and read the Extra Pack of Peanuts for additional Slovenia tips!
Around the Sea
One of the top Piran activities is walking around the sea. Because Piran is one of the “larger” villages on the coast, I recommend simply walking the coastline! In just over 30 minutes, we managed to see everything! By far, the corresponding ends of Piran are the highlights because the photos capture the famous “Piran Point.” The sea definitely has a calming effect and the photos look fantastic.
To celebrate our achievements, we went back to the apartment and brought some beers to wait for the sun to appear. We did not have any luck with the sun, but at least it wasn’t raining!
Sunset That Never Came
As we waited for the sun to simply appear, we were ready to dash up to the ancient city walls for sunset. Unfortunately, the sun appeared for a brief millisecond, but we dashed to the walls anyways! Similar to most of our rainy day, we did not get the results we wanted. Instead, the walls were closed and we went back into town for more exploration.
Travel Tip: The walls close around sunset - if you can see the sunset from behind the clouds! Check the site for more details.
City Overlook
Rather than sulk, we decided to explore the 2nd and 3rd best Piran attractions - the city itself and church! For Daniel and I, as we are history nerds, we enjoyed the medieval architecture and the awkwardly leaning houses combined with the cobblestone streets. Each house is very narrow, including our own AirBnB! Because we are in Piran in shoulder season, at times we felt that we had the entire city to ourselves!
Sunsets
Classic Hole-in-the-Wall Seafood
As we wandered through the narrow cobblestone streets, we were also in search for delicious and tasty seafood. I heard that Fritolin Pri Cantini had the best fried calamari. Since we had a late and huge lunch, we decided to split the massive fried calamari!
Because we had excellent views on our roof terrance, we took our food back and enjoyed the village’s sounds turn from day to night. Such a peaceful end to our first day in Piran!
It’s a Rainy Sunday
Unfortunately our poor weather continued to another rainy Sunday.
Bakery Breakfast
Because Daniel and I were up much earlier than Mary Frances, we ventured to a nearby cafe for a nice cuppa coffee and breakfast. Sadly, our pastry was a sugary croissant. We eventually corrected our mistake and went to a real bakery where the croissant was fresh and delicious! Even better, we had even more tasty treats for the rest of the day!
Ancient Town Walls
During our brief break from the rain, we decided to revisit the ancient town walls that provide an awesome Piran overlook. Not only were we the only people there with the upcoming storm, but we didn’t get rained on at all!
From the top of the walls, we had excellent views of the city. From here, we could easily see the famous Piran point that sticks out into the sea. The pictures were much better than I anticipated although I would prefer a sunny picture!
Views for Days!
Soaked At Pirat
Because it was pouring rain, we decided to have an early and hopefully long lunch at the highly recommended seafood restaurant, Pirat. Normally, in the cold and rain, I would want to sit inside but we had the luxury of sitting outside with a tiny heater. In my mind, this was our last chance to get our fresh seafood!
Although I wasn’t too hungry, I ordered their namesake, Pirat spaghetti which had loads of seafood in a red sauce spaghetti. MF went for a smaller swordfish spaghetti. Both were really good, but a ton of food. Thank goodness we had Daniel there!
A Final Gelato Goodbye
Because it was still raining, we delayed our walk back to the AirBnB by stopping at another highly recommend gelato shop, Karamela. Despite it meant a goodbye to Piran, we were happy to end on a high note with a fantastic chocolate gelato!
The UnChartered Summary
With only 47km of coastline, any village on the Slovenian coast will great. However, Piran is picture perfect with the narrow cobblestone streets with narrow beautiful houses.
- In spring, rain has a higher chance. In the summer, Piran is absolutely worth the visit! It is so charming and perfect for a 2 day visit.
- Because Italy is a stone’s throw away from Piran, the Italian food culture has come over and made the fresh Slovenian seafood into a wonderful blend!
- I would highly recommend our AirBnB for the roof terrance. While we did have a lot of stairs to cover, the views were fantastic!