Slovenia's 46km of coast all leads to Piran

You can drive into Piran's main car park at the edge of the old town, pay €15 for the day, and never quite figure out where you are. The better move is to leave the car in Portorož and walk in along the seafront — twenty-five minutes, salt air, and the moment Piran's bell tower lifts into view across the bay is worth more than the parking saved. The old town is Venetian, plainly so. It was part of the Republic for five centuries and the architecture doesn't pretend otherwise. Tartini Square is a small St Mark's down to the inlaid marble compass; the cathedral's campanile is a near-copy of San Marco's. Climb it for an aerial of the whole peninsula — terracotta roofs sloping into the Adriatic, the saltpans of Sečovlje curving down toward the Croatian border. Come for a long lunch and stay through sunset. Pri Mari for fish soup and grilled squid — a locals' place, small, book ahead. Then walk the seafront out to Punta, the white lighthouse at the tip; the water is clear enough to count fish from the breakwater. Sunset hits the western wall of the old town like stage lighting. A glass of Malvazija on the harbour and you're done.

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