Apartmaji Sonce

Apartmaji Sonce occupies a house in Ulica Svobode, in the compact fabric of the old town of Pirano, eleven metres above sea level and five hundred metres from the Punta beach, the one at the tip of the peninsula where people dive from the flat rocks looking at the lighthouse. Piazza Tartini, the cathedral of San Giorgio and the small harbour are within a few minutes on foot. It is the kind of address that works best in Pirano: inside the walls, where cars do not come, and a stroll away from everything.

The accommodation consists of independent units, created on several floors of the house and linked by a wooden staircase; the doors are numbered. Each one has air conditioning and heating, a fitted kitchen with utensils, a fridge, a hob and an electric kettle, a dining area, a flat-screen TV and a private bathroom with a bath or shower and a hairdryer. The work is recent and it shows: herringbone parquet, dark marble walls behind the head of the bed, linear kitchens in light wood and matt black, low warm lighting, bathrooms with level-access showers. The best part is the wooden terrace facing the roof tiles of Pirano, with a bench and a table, from which the sea can be seen beyond the roofs: it is the outdoor space that in such a narrow old town is worth double.

The rule on guests is stated by the booking portal, which in the children's conditions section writes that children are not allowed and adds that no cots or extra beds are available. The precise age, however, is published by no source: the property has no official website and the portal gives no threshold. The eighteen years that appear refer to the minimum age for check-in, that is, for putting the booking in one's own name, and are a different matter. This page is therefore based on the portal, and says so openly: for a guest under age, written confirmation from the host is needed before booking.

The other rules of the house: smoking is not allowed, parties and events are not held, pets are not allowed and quiet must be respected between 22.00 and 06.00. The host asks for the time of arrival to be given in advance, which makes sense in an old town where there is no reception open all day.

Pirano rewards those who stay. The walls can be walked along the top and give a view over the whole peninsula, the maritime museum tells the story of the sea captains and the salt pans, and in the evening the restaurants on the quay work with fish from the northern Adriatic. The Sicciole salt pans nature park is about ten kilometres away, Portorose with its thermal baths is in the next bay, the Istralandia water park is twenty-six kilometres away and Trieste a little more than thirty.

It suits those who want to sleep inside Pirano with their own kitchen and an outdoor space, without the formality of a hotel. It suits less those who arrive by car counting on parking below the house: the centre is pedestrian and the car parks are outside the walls.