My last day in Piran on Slovenia’s Adriatic coast and I’m listening to a performance of Guiseppe Tartini’s Devil’s Trill Sonata for violin and admiring 2 newly minted PADI qualifications - Advanced Open Water and Enriched Air Diving.
Exhaustion brought me here, after Scandinavia, the Baltics, Poland, Ukraine, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Coughing up yellow and green sputum (bronchitis) and sneezing blood and puss (sinusitis) in Ljubljana was the last straw. Belgrade, Sarajevo, Skopje, Sofia and Bucharest were put on ice and I checked into a resort in Piran for 7 nights for sun and sea.
Visiting Prague was a longtime coming. I meant to visit last year but was Hapsburged out.
It is astounding but desecrated by tourists. A young woman was the attention of a man the age of her grandfather who grasped her behind and buried his face in her bosum, a lap dance without permission or payment. Predatory eyes followed her and I had to remind myself that it’s not my fucking job to set every arsehole to rights.
Back to Tartini, Piran’s most successful son was born here in 1692 when it was an Italian possession called Pirano. His most famous piece is devilishly difficult and his virtuoso performances of it lead to a belief that he had sold his soul …which Tartini deliberately encouraged with the story that the music had come to him in a dream in which the Devil was playing violin.
The persistence of this motif in culture is fascinating. Paganini used it in the 1800s as did, of course, the Charley Daniels Band in the 1970’s with Devil Went Down to Georgia. A variant is an important part of the mythology of the Blues, appearing first in the story of Robert Johnson’s meeting with Lucifer at the crossroads. Then there is the movie Angel Heart with Micky Rourke, Lisa Bonnet, Robert de Niro and Charlotte Rampling.
Coincidentally, at the pick of the local restaurants is a head chef called Kristian Zule …“There is no Dana there is only Zule!”
Where I slept: Barbara Piran Beach Hotel: Definitely has seen former glories but you can't fault the location or the service. Or the beer.
Where I ate: Stara Gostilna: Magnificent upgrade on Slovenian traditions including seafood.
Tip: Take a dive or brush up on your scuba qualifications at the PADI dive school on the beach.