In 1976 an earthquake took this walled town down to rubble. They numbered every stone and put it back. In the crypt, the bodies never decayed.
The earthquakes of 6 May and 11 September 1976 flattened this walled town. It was rebuilt where it stood and as it stood: every stone numbered and put back. The centre is now a national monument.
In the crypt of the chapel of San Michele are the mummies of Venzone, bodies found from 1647 onward in the tombs of the cathedral, dried out by a natural process rather than embalmed.
Trieste (TRS) is about a hundred kilometres, an hour and a quarter. Venzone has a working station on the Udine-Tarvisio line, about forty minutes from Udine.
The Pumpkin Festival that made Venzone famous was cancelled in 2024 and again in 2025. Check with the town before planning around it. The crypt keeps seasonal hours, and the railway line closes for works.
Sources: tuttitalia.it/friuli-venezia-giulia/23-venzone/ ; venzoneturismo.it
Each town is a day. The order of the drives, the nights and the meals is the part that ruins most first trips to small Italy. Twelve of them in one guide, free, and a letter a week after that.
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