6 of the 7 Continents For The Budget Traveler: Friuli-Venezia Giulia In Winter

Cividale del Friuli Ponte Del Diavolo

It's been a goal to see all 20 regions of Italy and also to experience Italy in every month as it's high on my list of places to move abroad to for a few months, or maybe a few years... So using my strategies with setting price alerts on websites like Kayak or checking flights on Google, when a $600 flight to Italy sprouted up in late January I knew I had to investigate further, it was a flight originating in my city PHX, to London, Heathrow and then a connection to Venice. I still had to explore Friuli-Venezia Giulia for my bucket list and decided it would be a great last minute winter trip!

At this point I have extensively traveled through Italy, I speak the language as well, so going to Italy on last minute trips doesn't tend to be difficult as I'm very familiar with the culture, trains, formalities etc. I of course wanted to see Trieste the capital city of the region, but also wanted to make smaller trips to Cividale del Friuli, Miramare Castle, and the Grotto Gigante. Oh, and a bonus side trip to Slovenia, why not when it's so close!?

Here were some of my favorite things and spots about this less traveled region of Italy:

Cividale Del Friuli Ponte del Diavolo, this was really the highlight of my journey here. This is another general Italy advice, Google will mislead at times with trains, especially for the smaller less traveled regions. I like rome2rio.com, but sometimes you get to the nitty gritty and have to just look at old school train maps to figure out if it's possible. I landed in Venice then took Trenitalia, the main line to Udine station, then took the region train to Cividale Del Friuli.... It took me about 15 minutes to walk to my Airbnb, then 1 minute to the bridge....

After that it was off to Trieste for my home base to explore the region.
Trieste was a great little city to spend the winter time, I will say this, of the 19 regions I have been to in Italy (I haven't been to Calabria yet), it was the least Italian region. This is of course still Italy, but architecture, hearing a lot of German, and of course delicious regional plates were not the same as prior trips, but of course still deliciously Italian.
Piazza dell'Unita d'Italia is top rated in most search engines, its a great place to start the day or finish the day, and I'm sure during events it's great, but definitely wasn't my favorite part.
Caffe Degli Specchi
I'll note here also there was a lot of hype that this region is the coffee capital, all Italian coffee is great, I didn't really notice anything different here from a normal cafe in a bar to the elegant fancy coffees I had, regardless, still delightful.
The Grand Canal was more my style, very scenic, mandatory to take the classic tourist photo, and much more wider selection of bars, restaurants, or cafes to pass the time. Then of course a nice walk on the Lungo Mare to digest some of the food.
Off the tourist grid for fitness enthusiasts, John Reed Fitness. This by far was the best gym I've ever trained in located in Italy, and honestly one of the best ever period.

Grotta Gigante made for a good day trip, a giant cave to explore the depths of Italy. I wish I knw going in the tour guide may ask you to sing! I'm not a singer per say, but definitely like to belt out a good song here and there, had I known I would have had one come to mind, but as always on the spot I couldn't think of one! Great pizza at a restaurant right next door when you leave.

Night life was pretty standard for Italy, I would say winter didn't close anything besides the beach clubs. Most of night life was outdoor dining or comfy indoor bars, I did dip into one night club, but didn't stay long as I was the oldest there by at least 10 years.

Miramare Castle is another great day trip. Or half day, small and easy to see quickly.

Dark history, Risiera San Sabba is the site of an Italian concentration camp. I visted the sight for a few hours.

While we are on dark history, I also toured Kleines Berlin. A bomb shelter from WWII. If you are a history buff check the hours. This place had odd days and times open. I was fortunate that a random history event took place during my visit and I snagged last minute tickets.
You don't have the colosseum but you do have The Roman Theater Of Trieste!
The best views were by far from San Giusto Castle

But those views of course didn't compare to my quick visit to Cividale Del Friuli Ponte del Diavolo.

So you can go either way I think with this special part of Italy, for a lot of people it is a stop on a cruise, and plenty of great options to tour at least the Trieste City part. But if you have more time the region holds so many beautiful gems, of which I'm sure with all of Italy, I only touched the surface.