Italy's north-eastern corner, where Latin, Slavic and Germanic Europe meet. Trieste was the Habsburg empire's seaport and still reads like Vienna on the Adriatic — grand cafés, a vast sea-facing piazza, Miramare castle on its promontory. Inland, Aquileia's basilica keeps the largest early-Christian floor mosaic in the West, Cividale was the Lombards' first Italian capital, and the Collio and Colli Orientali produce white wines that many Italians rate above any other in the country.
- Trieste and Piazza Unità d'Italia
- Miramare Castle
- Aquileia's basilica mosaics
- Cividale del Friuli
- Collio wine road
- Grado and the Marano lagoon
- Best time to go
- May–June and September–October. The bora wind makes winter Trieste bracing; the Carso and vineyards are at their best in autumn.
- Getting there
- Trieste airport (Ronchi dei Legionari) sits on the rail line between Venice and Trieste; Venice and Ljubljana are both around 2h by road.
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Headline places
What italia.it leads with in Friuli Venezia Giulia.
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Aquileia Basilica The largest early-Christian floor mosaic in the West, laid around 320 AD -
Miramare Castle A white Habsburg castle on a promontory, inside a marine reserve -
Cividale del Friuli Julius Caesar's foundation, and the Lombards' first Italian capital - Collio Wine Road Border-straddling hills that make Italy's most admired white wines
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Grado & the lagoon A sandy island resort with an early-Christian centre, in its own lagoon
Cities & bases
Where to sleep, and what each place is good for.
Friuli Venezia Giulia by experience
The themes this region delivers on.
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Art & culture More UNESCO World Heritage sites than any other country on earth -
Food & wine Regional to the point of parochial — and all the better for it -
Coast & islands 7,900 km of coastline and around eighty inhabited islands -
UNESCO Italy Sixty World Heritage sites — the largest tally of any country -
Borghi & villages The hill towns that carry I Borghi più belli d'Italia and the Orange Flag -
Spirituality & pilgrimage Rome, Assisi, and the pilgrim roads that connect them -
Thermal baths & wellness Volcanic Italy's other output — hot water, since the Romans
More of The North
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Aosta Valley Italy's smallest region, under the four highest mountains in the Alps -
Piedmont Barolo, white truffles, royal Turin and the Alps at the foot of the plain -
Liguria The Italian Riviera — Cinque Terre, Portofino and pesto's home port -
Lombardy Milan, the great lakes and the Alps of Valtellina -
South Tyrol German-speaking Italy under the Dolomites -
Trentino Dolomite valleys, Lake Garda's northern tip and Italy's alpine lakes -
Veneto Venice, Verona, Palladio's villas and the Dolomites of Cortina -
Emilia-Romagna Parmigiano, prosciutto, Ferrari and Ravenna's mosaics