Izola - no more an island (Izola)

Member Name: fizzywizzy

Product:	Izola
Date:	06/10/08 (187 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Pretty Venetian town, a good base for exploring the Slovenian coast

Disadvantages: Hard to learn about historic sights, no sandy beaches

The small coastal town of Izola is often overlooked in favour of its more flashy (Portoroz) or quaint (Piran) neighbours. One of the best things about the short (just 46 Kilometres) Slovenian coastline, however, is that it offers a selection of quite contrasting resorts with very different attractions and facilities with each town being quite distinct in ambience.

Piran (which I have previously reviewed for this website) is the quiet and historic "mini-Dubrovnik", a walled peninsula with narrow Venetian streets and an imposing fortress. Portoroz - which translates as "Port of Roses" - is the loud and modern high-rise resort favoured by Russian visitors, the place tellingly nicknamed by a Slovene politician as "Port of Cement". Izola is somewhere in the middle; it's more of a family resort with a small but pretty Old Town, a large marina and a handful of excellent seafood restaurants.

The first thing you'll notice about Izola is that all the signs are in Italian - in fact the municipality has both Slovene and Italian as official languages. The customary greeting is "Ciao ciao" and we were regarded with some suspicion when we used "northern Slovene". Izola gets its name from the Italian word "Isola" meaning island and the town once was exactly that. Although Izola was trading with the Venetians in the ninth century, it officially fell under the Rule of Venice in 1267. In 1797 the peninsula of Istria , of which Izola is part, passed to the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, then it became part of the Illyrian provinces of the Napoleonic Empire until 1813 when it fell under the control of the Austrian Empire. At the end of the Napoleonic period the city walls were torn down and used to fill in the channel that separated the island from the mainland. At this time many of the important historic buildings such as churches and palaces were demolished too. In 1918 all of Istria fell under the jurisdiction of Italy and remained so until 1943 when, with the Italian surrender, it fell under the control of the Germans. At the end of World War Two Izola became part of the "Free Territory of Trieste" and remained so until it became part of Yugoslavia in 1954. Most of the Italian speakers living in Izola at the time chose to leave for Italy though a small number remained and today, of a population of around 15,000 there are approximately 600 ethnic Italians living in Izola, the number in the western part of Slovenia totally some three thousand or so.

The second thing you'll notice is the high number of wheelchair users in the town; Izola is relatively flat which makes it ideal for wheelchair users and a large complex by the sea offers holiday accommodation to disabled people and their families. There's even a purpose built jetty and seawater pool with the equipment to lift disabled swimmers in and out the pool.

Izola made its wealth primarily in the fishing industry and there is still a sizeable cannery on the edge of town today. However, fishing is now largely dominated by larger companies and the picturesque harbour is crammed with private leisure craft. The old port is now a marina for some very sleek and expensive-looking yachts, mostly owned by Germans, Austrians and Russians. At weekends the sight of all these sailing boats bobbing on the radiant blue waters of the Adriatic is a striking thing to see.

There are no sandy beaches on the Slovenian coast, even those at Portoroz are stretches of shallow manmade fake beach - try digging a hole in the sand at Portoroz and see how far you get! However Izola has two "town beaches" as well as two long stretches of grass next to the long sea path that stretches almost the entirety of the coastline. A town beach is basically a small stretch of pebbled space with purpose -built jetties you can swim from - these are common in Italian and Croatian resorts too - and allow you to use steps to climb directly into the sea this avoiding walking on the uncomfortable and slippy stones to get into the water. Locals bring deckchairs and sun-loungers and erect them on the concrete or on the grass though it is more common just to stretch out on a towel on the concrete. The water is very clean and stays reasonably shallow for a short distance so it's suitable for children. We made a point of swimming twice a day, joining the locals who swim to the edge of the port and back.

The Old Town of Izola will always be overshadowed by Piran though it does have some very pretty streets of narrow houses and picturesque courtyards as well as a number of attractive, but crumbling, old palazzos. The Manzoli House is a recently restored Venetian house that belonged to a fifteenth century Istrian historian while the Besenghi degli Ughi Palace is an eighteenth century Rococo mansion which is now a music school. The Old Town is a maze of narrow streets and you could spend a whole afternoon wandering around admiring the pastel-coloured houses but it is a little disappointing that some of the buildings have not been cared for as they might have. Sadly the churches tended to be locked up when there were no services and we couldn't find much in the way of informative literature in the Tourist Information Centre.

Attractive though it is, Izola doesn't have much in the way of things to do. For museums, one should make for Piran or Koper, the large port town to the north. Shoppers should head to Portoroz with its glitzy designer stores and nature lovers should take the popular coastal path to the cliffs at Cape Ronek at the small settlement of Strunjan between Izola and Piran. The "Pride of Venice", a high speed catamaran, sails between Izola and Venice (sailings vary around the year but it sails on Tuesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday from mid-June until September). The fare includes a guided tour of the city and this can be an inexpensive way of getting a flavour of Venice.

Izola is undoubtedly an excellent place to use as a base to explore the Slovenian coast and the Istrian hinterland. The town has a good selection of bars and restaurants although I did think it a little pricey compared to other parts of Slovenia. There are plenty of bakeries selling delicious pastries which make a good lunch of you want something small and intend to eat your main meal in the evening. The restaurants along the harbourside specialise in seafood, the squid in particular is very good. Most places also serve pizza and traditional meat dishes like cevapcici (small spicy sausages made from minced meat). Ice cream is sold in cafes called "slascicarna" (alas I can't write it in the Slovene way on this site) and comes in every flavour imaginable.

Izola has a small number of traditional hotels, a few larger complexes that have their own water-parks and leisure facilities and lots of private accommodation such as apartments and rooms in the owners' homes. We reserved a private room in advance but when we went to the letting agency on our arrival in Izola the consultant persuaded us to take a small apartment in the town centre instead. It was more expensive but we were glad to have been persuaded because the weather was really too hot to trudge up the hill with our rucksacks to the cheaper room. Our small apartment (really a bedsit with a small en suite bathroom) was a bargain at approximately 36 Euro a night and we had use of two balconies for some outdoor space in the evenings. (A word of warning - the mosquitoes are particularly unpleasant in Izola!)

Izola is a charming seaside town with more than a touch of Italian influence. There may not be a lot to do but it is a great base for independent tourists happy to make their own way around the region. Hopefully some investment might be poured into the Old Town, restoring some of the pretty but rundown buildings but part of the appeal of Izola is that it doesn't have the crowds that flock to Piran on a daily basis almost the whole year round. Izola has just enough sights for day trip from the Croatian resorts of Istria, the Italian city of Trieste or the Slovenian capital Ljubljana but it seems a shame to rush away without enjoying the whole coastal region with its varied and interesting diversions. Highly recommended.

For further information look at
http://www.slovenia.info/?_ctg_kraji=2783

There are regular bus services from Ljubljana to the Slovenian coast which stop at all the resorts. Buses also stop en route to the Croatian coastal resorts in Istria.

A regular bus service operates from Trieste; the journey takes approximately one hour.

For the catamaran service to Venice look at

http://www.kompas-online.net/Pages/CruisesFerries /prince.aspx

For private accommodation and apartments visit

http://www.laguna-sp.si/ponudbe-1-en_GB.htm

Summary: A pleasant family-orientated Slovenian seaside resort