Nin Saltworks

Why it is worth your time

The Nin saltworks is where the sea turns to crystal in a way thousands of years old: fields of shallow basins in the lagoon south of the town, in which sun and bura draw the salt out of the sea in summer while the salters gather it by hand, with wooden tools, like the generations before them. Beside the production works a small salt museum with a display on the craft's history, from Roman times to today, and an educational path leading between the basins; guided tours in summer show the harvest up close, including the flower of salt, the thin crust picked first and prized most.

The saltworks is a birds' restaurant too: herons and other waders stalk the shallow basins, so binoculars are no bad idea. In the shop at the entrance one buys salt, salt flower and salt chocolate, souvenirs that actually get used. The visit takes an hour; in summer come in the morning, for above the white basins there is no shade. The combination with the old town is natural: salt was Nin's gold for centuries, and after the saltworks the wealth of the small royal capital reads more clearly.