1Day 1 Milano / Spilimbergo / San Daniele del Friuli / Gemona

Meals included: dinner

Board the coach in Milan and depart for Spilimbergo, a splendid fortified town. Meet with the guide and visit the historic center and the characteristic Duomo. Depart for San Daniele del Friuli. Free time for lunch In the afternoon, visit a San Daniele prosciutto production workshop. Afterwards, take a guided tour of the Duomo, which houses a painting by the artist known as “il Pordenone” representing the Trinity; continue to visit the Church of Sant’Antonio Abate, known as the “Sistine Chapel of Friuli.” Continue to Gemona del Friuli. Check-in at hotel. Dinner and overnight stay.

2Day 2 Cividale del Friuli / Venzone / Gemona

Meals included: breakfast, dinner

Breakfast at the hotel. Departure for Cividale del Friuli, an ancient city founded by the Romans and later occupied by the Lombards, who made it the capital of the first Lombard duchy in 568. Meet with the guide in front of the Lombard Temple, an extraordinary example of early medieval architecture and sculpture. Visit the temple and then continue to the Duomo, the Town Hall, and the picturesque Devil’s Bridge over the Natisone River.
Free lunch. Departure for Venzone to visit the village and continue to Gemona. Gemona is mentioned by Paul the Deacon in his Historia Langobardorum, where he states that in 611 it was considered an impregnable castle. Since prehistoric times, Gemona was one of the most important and obligatory passage points on the road leading from the Adriatic to the northeastern Alpine passes. The plain where most of the urban settlements are now developed was once dominated by the swamps of the Tagliamento River, and the safest and obligatory route was through the current historic center, then continuing towards upper Friuli. The Duomo, dedicated to Santa Maria Assunta, is of splendid beauty. It was built on the site of a previous church between 1290 and 1337. Dinner and overnight stay at the hotel.

3Day 3 Trieste / Gemona

Meals included: breakfast, dinner

4Day 4 Isola di Barbana / Aquileia / Milano

Meals included: breakfast, dinner

Breakfast at the hotel. Board the coach and depart for Grado. Transfer by boat to the island of Barbana. Arrival and free visit of the Sanctuary. Departure for Grado. Arrival and transfer to Aquileia. Before the last stretches of the Venetian plain dissolve into the lagoon, the Basilica of Aquileia rises, majestic and superb with its imposing 73-meter bell tower. Today’s settlement is a modest agricultural village, but it still preserves the remains of one of the largest cities of the Roman Empire, a vital port for commercial communications with the Danube market. Free lunch. After meet with the guide and visit the exterior of the Basilica and later inside, built in the 11th century in Romanesque style by expanding a pre-existing church (9th century) that was in turn built on a 5th-century basilica and a 4th-century early Christian hall, with its typical three-nave interior. Afterwards, depart for Milan. Arrival in the evening.