Programme
Monday Sept 25
AM - Midday flight from London Gatwick to Venice. By private coach to Udine to check into our hotel.
PM - Group dinner at the hotel.
Tuesday Sept 26
AM - Cividale. Morning in Cividale del Friuli the capital of the first Lombard duchy in Italy at the end of the 6th century and now a UNESCO World Heritage site. We will visit the Cathedral, the Cathedral Museum, the Archeological Museum, and the Tempietto Longobardo.
Group lunch in Cividale
PM - Afternoon in Udine. A walk in Udine to the Piazza della Libertà, the Loggia del Lionello, and the Arco Bollani and a visit to the Cathedral and Baptistery. Then to the Oratorio della Purità and the Museo Diocesano e Gallerie del Tiepolo to see splendid works by Giambattista and Giandomenico Tiepolo.
Wednesday Sept 27
AM - Aquileia. Also a UNESCO World Heritage site it was founded in 181 BC as a Roman military and trading centre with a harbour connecting it to its seaport at Grado. We will visit the Romanesque-Gothic basilica complex with its superb 4th-century mosaic floor and two crypts, the Cripta degli Affreschi and the Cripta degli Scavi. We will also visit the archeological area, which has good remains of the Roman river port, and the Museo Archeologico Nazionale.
Group lunch
PM - Grado is situated on an island in the Adriatic and reached via a long causeway. We will visit the historic centre including the 6th century basilicas of Sant’ Eufamia, with superb floor mosaics, and Santa Maria delle Grazie.
Return to Udine via the walled town of Palmanova built on a nine pointed star plan with a hexagonal central piazza.
Thursday Sept 28
AM - Trieste. Situated on a narrow strip of land between the Adriatic and Slovenia where we will visit the Cathedral of San Giusto with Byzantine mosaics and then walk through the 18th-century Habsburg Borgo Teresiano visiting the Serbian Orthodox San Spiridione and the Greek Orthodox church of San Nicoló. We will end the morning with a visit to the Museo Revoltella in the mansion of the 19th century businessman Baron Pasquale Revoltella containing a superb collection of turn of the 19th/20th century paintings and sculpture.
Group lunch
PM - Around the bay from Trieste, standing on the promontory of Grignano overlooking the Gulf of Trieste, is the Castello Miramare built in the second half of the 19th century for the Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian of Habsburg. We will visit the beautifully preserved castle and some of its extensive gardens.
Group dinner at the hotel.
Friday Sept 29
AM - Morning excursion to the painted towns of Friuli. Pordenone’s Corso Vittorio Emanuele to see Palazzo Mantica-Cattaneo and Palazzo Ricchiere, and a visit to the Duomo and Museo Civico to see the work of Antonio de’ Sacchis, il Pordenone. Then to Spilimbergo with the exterior of the medieval Palazzo Dipinto and the Gothic Sta Maria Maggiore with a 14th c fresco cycle.
Group lunch
PM - Sesto al Reghena, the former fortified Benedictine Abbey of S. Maria in Sylvis with frescos from the 12th to the 15th centuries
Saturday Sept 30
AM - Gorizia is at the foot of the Julian Alps and is bisected by the border with Slovenia with the new town of Nova Gorica on the other side of the border. We will visit the Cathedral, the church of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the Castello , the adjacent Museum of the First World War and visit the border in Transalpina Square.
Group lunch
PM - Castello di Duino. The 14th century Castello Nuovo di Duino overlooking the bay of Trieste and featuring a staircase by Palladio. Liszt, Strauss and Mark Twain were among the guests here and in 1912 Rilke began to write his mystical poems the “Duino Elegies” while staying at the castle.
Sunday Oct 1
AM - Towards the mountains. Many Alpine towns were severely damaged by earthquakes in 1976 and have been painstakingly rebuilt. We will explore the fortified town of Venzone and visit the crypt of the former chapel of San Michele which contains mummies discovered in1647. On to Gemona for the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta and then to San Daniele, home of the famous prosciutto, for a visit to the frescoed medieval church of Chiesa San Antonio Abate.
Group lunch
PM - Castello di Villalta. Built on the ruins of a Roman fort the medieval castello is considered one of the most beautiful in Friuli.
Group dinner at the hotel.
Monday Oct 2
At leisure before a midday departure by private coach to Venice airport for an afternoon flight to Gatwick.
The itinerary may be modified if required by local conditions.
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