A Day in Beautiful Piran then Back into Italy

 Piran and the Ride to San Giorgio di Nogaro

Resting in Piran and a Foodie Highlight

Our day in Piran started with a brief swim for me and a bit of wading for Di. We thought it might do our legs some good to be in the water but once in there we realised it probably wasn’t cool enough to have a therapeutic effect. It was a lovely time to be in the water though. The temperature was already about 20 degrees at seven o’clock when we ventured out. The shoreline was shaded so we weren’t getting blasted by the sun, which was very good.

After changing out of our wet clothes we wandered around the little port to the tip of the peninsula where there is a building and what has the appearance of having been a lookout tower . Here are two angles because I couldn’t decide which was better …

I liked the old door and the carving above it so here is a picture of that too …

Di read on the plaque to the left of the door that this building has been here in Piran since the 13th Century, as has the cathedral and its campanile which dominates the skyline … 

Even more interesting is that Tartini Square was once part of the harbour back in the day when it was a working fishing port but was filled in to create what I think is one of the most beautiful town squares that I’ve visited …

Piran has for a very long time been a centre of salt production. The city walls date back to the 7th Century and were gradually added to over time, with most of what is now visible dating to Venetian occupation in the 15th Century. Quite a lot of history in this gem which we didn’t know anything about before Michael included it on the agenda for this trip and brought us here.

A few more images from our morning stroll before the sun rose high in the sky …

Our little stroll went along the shore to the point and then back via the city centre and some little alleyways. It’s a real medieval town with buildings packed quite close together and separated by a network of narrow lanes, as you can see from this image showing our route …

That was a very pleasant stroll but after a couple of hours and discussions with Michael about our route for tomorrow and agreeing on a departure time Dianne and I decided to go out again and do a little bit of grocery shopping for a light dinner and some breakfast, and to look for somewhere to eat our main meal in the middle of the day. After looking over the menus of a number of eateries we were on our way back along an alley a couple of streets back from the water to the osteria attached to our apartment building so we could be in the shade as much as possible when we came across a place called “Tala Mare”.

It was a modest but welcoming place with an outdoor setting located on an alleyway coming in from the main road along the waterfront. We stopped in our tracks because it was also still in shade and had a cool breeze funneling through. The menu was not at all gourmet but looked just like the sort of food we were after: fresh, nutritious, local and not overly expensive. We chose a plate of fried sardines, and a plate of fried calamari, a bowl of salad and a bowl of sweet potato fries, all of which we shared between us. We were delighted when it arrived and even more so when we tucked in …

We both thought it was one of the best meals we’ve had since we’ve arrived in Europe for this adventure. Nutritious, unpretentious and downright delicious. And to top it off our waiter was a very gregarious local guy who’d been to Australia twice for three months to stay with relatives. It probably sounds corny but this is one of the more memorable moments of our holiday so far: good simple fresh food, cooked well, eaten in a outdoor setting close to the sea in an ancient town and served by a happy, interactive entertaining waiter. We even had a pleasant exchange with some French people at the next table  - who were so much taken with our waiter that they insisted on buying him a glass of the excellent local white wine they were drinking. It’s making me smile sitting here thinking back over it the experience.

If you’re ever here in Piran for any length of time, Dianne and I would recommend finding and stopping for a meal - especially for lunch - at Tala Mare …

The last thing I did on our rest day was to tackle puzzle #83 in my Quick Cryptic Crossword book. I was going well after a shorter, easier ride yesterday and a good rest overnight and through the day allowing the brain to start working properly. But then I got a bit stumped and was going to give up on 1 down and 8 across. I was just closing the book up when it occurred to me that 1down was an anagram and “WINE LIST” became obvious. I didn’t know that “NOBBLES” can mean bribes but that seemed to be the only possibility for 8 down. 

Quite a fun one, made a fair bit easier with the number of anagrams. Some of you might like to look it over. I especially liked 9 down and 17 across …

Riding from Piran to San Giorgio di Nogaro

It was very pleasant in the shade when we left Piran

We’d scheduled a 7:00 a.m. start so we could be underway when it was relatively cool and the traffic would be light. We also had a stop planned at Piazza Unità d’Italia in Trieste as we passed through. It’s about 36 kilometres from where we were staying in Piran to the square and I thought it should take about two hours, given that we’d be riding along bike paths quite a lot of the way and then negotiating city traffic once we got to Trieste.

I made point of having the GoPro ready when we came to the first tunnel on the way back …

Shortly after that first tunnel we came to the second one …

Here’s the map of our planned route for the day …

I say “planned” because none of us rode the route exactly as mapped. Firstly, because I didn’t have the map zoomed in enough at a critical juncture I missed a right turn I and I couldn’t go back to the group because the ramp I found myself on was very full-on with traffic. I managed to escape onto another road that pointed towards the purple line that shows the route and I thought it would be relatively simple to find my way back to it. Instead I found myself in a web of intersecting bike paths, a maze of roads and both a tunnel and an overpass for cyclists and pedestrians. It took a lot longer than I would have liked to find my way back onto the purple line and it took me perhaps 15 or 20 minutes and two kilometres longer to reach Piazza Unita d’Italia than the others …

By the time I arrived the others had decided they would make it a shorter day than planned and would go as far as the Malfacone train station, which worked out to be about 68 kms from where we started. I was still keen to ride the whole route so, after a cold drink and a cornetto cioccolato, I got back on the bike and rolled off on my own. Not to be unsociable but to be efficient. I would save time in the heat later and would be able to roll along at my own pace and navigate traffic without having worry about others following in my wake - or not like when I was following this guy and rolled on past  …

In the end I had a very enjoyable ride and never really felt like I was getting too hot, despite the forecast for the temperatures getting up into the mid thirties. Dianne and I have found on our more recent visits to this part of the world that if it’s going to be a warm day. Here are some images from the first half of the ride  after I left the others …

I made another navigational error along the coast, again because I wasn’t zoomed in enough to see that I should have been gradually moving away from the water rather than following religiously the seashore. I soon realised my mistake and could have headed back straight away but it was so pleasant I continued along this beautiful little road until just before it terminated at a parking lot …

In the middle part of the ride I passed through a number of small towns. I’m guessing these two chimneys must have served some sort of industrial enterprise back in the day …

For a while each subsequent little town seemed to have a narrow tower in a prominent position …

As you can see from the elevation profile below, there were regular bumps along the route for the first 60 kms or so of the ride. The height of at least four of these bumps - including the last one - is slightly exaggerated by the fact that there were tunnels towards the tops of them.

Here’s a video I think I shot of riding through what I think was a tunnel on the last major bump where there is a is a little spike just near the top …

I didn’t take any very memorable photos towards the latter part of the journey because it was starting to get fairly warm and I was focused on finding my way to the hotel. I did have one VERY memorable experience just three kilometres before my journey ended when I came around a corner and a bunch of guys standing around a barbecue shouted out for me to come and join them and have a beer and some pasta. How could I refuse??? …

They were part of a baseball club holding their annual family day where the adults play against the kids and then there is a major debrief afterwards. They call themselves the Dragons and they were having a roaring good time. There would have been at least 100 people - plus an unknown number of dogs - on the other side of the marquee set up in the background. There were mobs of kids of all ages and the younger ones seemed to all packing water pistols/cannons. One of the gentlemen I was sharing a beer with took me out the back to fill a bidon at a cold tap coming up from a well and I got deliciously drenched by a bunch of them, to their and my delight alike!

It was very quiet at the hotel when I arrived and Di came out to meet me. No one in reception or any other staff I wondered what the story was but no-one seemed to know. I was counting on there being somewhere to get a cold drink Di told me there was an emergency number so I thought I might as well call it. When I eventually got through the fellow who answered said he’d be at the hotel in ten minutes. I let the others know and they all came down for a cold drink except Michael who continues to suffer from some sort of malaise and was having a kip before dinner.

Something I spotted behind the bar when I was chatting with the fellow who’d arrived to remediate our emergency was something Australian cycling fans would recognise …

Jayco Alula is the first and only Australian-based World Tour cycling team and it was nice to see this cap the team donated to the hotel when they stayed here earlier in the year while competing in the Giro d’Italia. And that seems like a good note to finish for today.