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PIRAN , at the very tip of the peninsula 4km from Portoroz's bus station, couldn't be more different. There are tourists here too, lots of them, thronging the main square, packing the ranks of restaurants, milling around the souvenir-stacked harbour. But few actually stay (most are in fact from Portoroz's hotel complexes), and the town preserves tangible remnants of atmosphere in its sloping web of arched alleys and little Italianate squares. The centre of town, a couple of hundred metres around the harbour from where the buses stop, is Tartinijev trg , named after the eighteenth-century Italian violinist and composer Giuseppe Tartini, who was born in a house on the square and is remembered by a bronze statue in the centre. With its striking oval-shaped interior, it's one of the loveliest squares on this coast, fringed by a mix of Venetian palaces and a portentous Austrian town hall. Just off the square there's a small Aquarium (daily 10am-noon & 2-7pm; 350SIT), with a rather sad set of tanks full of local marine life. Opposite, across the bay of the harbour, the Maritime Museum (July & Aug Tues-Sun 9am-noon & 6-9pm; rest of year Tues-Sun 9am-noon & 3-6pm; 300SIT) pays further homage to Tartini with a copy of his violin and assorted genuine memorabilia, along with an interesting display on Piran's salt industry and a scatter of paintings that includes native ex-votive works by Piran sailors and a ropey portrait of the local authorities by Tintoretto. Follow Ulica IX Korpusa uphill from the square to the barnlike Baroque Church of Sv Jurij , which crowns a commanding spot on the far side of Piran's peninsula. The campanile is visible from just about everywhere in the town and may seem familiar - it's a replica of the one in St Mark's Square in Venice. Five minutes' walk further up, the town's formidable sixteenth-century walls stagger across the hill, the remaining towers providing excellent views of the town below.
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