From Trieste to Portaroz, From Piran to Maribor

After our tour of Collio, a couple of days by the seaside was just the ticket. This is the port of Piran in Slovenia, just an hour or so drive south of Trieste in Italy. Therapeutic salt baths, therapeutic cold beer, therapeutic pizza with chilies...


If this is what the Adriatic Coast is going to be like, I will have to come back with R. But, a much more weighty question arose...


And that is, which way to Arse?


From Piran, we rented a car and headed across the country to Maribor, hoping to get a tour of Vinag, a cellar in the centre of town, reportedly holding some 2 million litres of wine (the equivalent of more than 2.5 million standard wine bottles). Unfortunately, we ran into heavy rain and got there just as the place closed.


It was looking bleak, with only this fruit stand and an oil drum of flaming chestnuts for consolation.


However, all was not lost though, as turning around we found a winebar. Along with Vinag's finest, some home-made wine must was available, so we gave that a go before moving on to Ljubljana.