The rain began falling during the night. So far, the weather in Venice was excellent, not too hot and not cold, just perfect for sightseeing, and it did not rain. I packed after breakfast, sent a text message to Giorgio that I was leaving, placed the keys on the table and closed the apartment door behind me. The B&B Romantica may not be romantic, but it was a good place to spend 4 nights.
It continued to rain while I was on the train to Trieste and on the bus to Italy’s neighbor Slovenia. My week in Italy was well planned in advance; the week ahead in Slovenia was not. I read guidebooks and online articles on Slovenia at home noting major attractions and could not come up with an itinerary. In the end, I decided that Slovenia is a small country. I will never be too far away from the airport and it will be easier to figure out what to do when I get there.
Slovenia has only 47km (29 mi) of coastline on the Adriatic Sea. To start exploring Slovenia from its beaches sounded attractive but where to get off the bus? The first stop was Koper, a city with a medieval old town. The rain intensified and I decided to ride a little farther. Next was Izola. It looked compact and cute from the bus and I got off.
It was not fun to search for a hotel walking in the rain with a backpack and no umbrella. All items that I took with me were carefully selected. They were absolutely necessary and lightweight. An umbrella did not fit this description and I was soaking from the rain.
I stopped to put a waterproof cover on my backpack. A nearby window opened and a woman asked me in a harsh voice what I was doing there. I was on a public street, not on someone’s private property and was not doing anything wrong.
After a fruitless search for a hotel in Izola, gradually getting wet, I turned back to the bus stop. This town was not my kind of place.
Should I press on in the same direction to Piran, a small resort city, or return to Koper? Let a chance decide for me. The first bus to come was going to Koper. So be it, perhaps for better because it was not beach weather anyway. In Koper, I quickly got a room at the Koper hotel and it was their last vacant room. As I learned later, Koper was hosting gymnastics qualifying rounds for juniors; the athletes took all rooms.
A kind receptionist lent me her own umbrella; the hotel did not have any, and I went to have a look at the old town. It would have been a pleasant walk if it had not rained. The small old town was really pretty. Some buildings had plaques on the walls that they were palazzos from the 16th and 17th century. They were turned into apartments; people lived in these really old buildings. I wanted to see how much these palazzos changed inside, to what degree they were modernized, but this of course was not possible.
Next morning it still drizzled. I did another lap around the old town to make sure that I did not miss anything interesting and took the bus to Postojna.