Guide To Friuli Venezia Giulia In A Campervan

Our guide to Friuli Venezia Giulia in a campervan

This is our guide to Friuli Venezia Giulia in a campervan. It’s a region located in the northeast of Italy, spanning from the lagoons and coast up into the Carnic Alps. We have absolutely loved this region, and ended up staying almost a month.

You can read a separate post on our very favourite spot near the Grotte di Pradis >> Magical Mountain Camping. Here though, you’ll mainly find the places we found helpful travelling around in our motorhome with kids – laundrys, playgrounds, and gelato stops. We’ve also marked them all on the map above including pictures where we have them.

We’ve also written this post Italy In A Campervan – Where We Stayed that you might find useful.

Please note, we visited August – September 2018, this information was correct at the time of writing.

Pordenone

• Medieval festival – One 16th September 2018 we went to a fantastic medieval festival in Pordenone, but I can’t find a link to share the details! I will update if I can located one.
• Gelateria Amore Bio – We thought this was some of the best gelato we had in Italy at the time of writing (September 2018). All the ingredients are organic, and many are DOP. I personally like that the gelato isn’t loud garish colours, which I think reflects their use of natural ingredients. We tried the lemon sorbet, the raspberry sorbet, the chocolate gelato, and the lemon granite. All excellent. The lemon granite was a particular favourite of both mine and Nick, it had a fantastic flavour and was dotted with zest.
• NaturaSi – There are two NaturaSi’s listed in Pordenone, we went to the one on Via Ungaresca. It was newly opened with a cafe, something we’d not seen at any other NaturaSi.

Maniago

• Maniago Camping Aire – Located at Via Battiferri, 2, 33085 Maniago PN, Italy. Pretty quiet site, free electricity, water, and grey water dump.
• Park (climbing pyramid)
• Raw milk machine – The raw milk machine in Maniago is hard to miss, it’s a big shed painted black and white. It cost €1 for a litre of raw milk. You simply placed your bottle in the dispenser, popped in your money, and pressed a button. If you don’t have your own bottle, there’s an option to purchase a plastic bottle from the machine (I think it was about €0.20).
• Farmers market – I stumbled across this farmers market by accident when I went in search of the raw milk machine. The farmers market was on Saturday morning in the car park by the raw milk machine. There was less than half a dozen stalls but some good produce – vegetables, fruit, cheese, wine.
• Local grocers shop – Opposite the camping aire there was a great little grocery shops called Alimentari da Jenny. It had everything you might need from a small selection of fresh produce, to fresh bread and deli items.
• Laundry

Spilimbergo

• Spilimbergo Camping Aire – Located at 33097 Spilimbergo, Province of Pordenone, Italy. Quiet site, €5 for 24 hours including electricity, water and grey water dump.
• La Perla Ristorante Pizzeria – We had a delicious pizza dinner here after it was recommended to us by the owners of il Furletto at Grotte di Pradis.
• Good butchers – I believe the butchers we went to was Le Carni di de Rosa Giuseppe & C. Sas (as labelled on Google Maps). It was certainly on Corso Roma, which is a beautiful pedestrian street. The meat seemed of good quality and the lady who served us spoke good English, which was very helpful with our limited Italian.
• Gelateria Dolce Arte di Venier – A nice gelateria and near to a playground.
• Kids playground – There was a nice kids playground on via Don Marco Bortolussi.
• Bakery – Near the kids playground and gelateria.
• Laundry – Self-service laundry called Lavanderia Self Service Magia di Bolle. Near to the kids playground, bakery and gelateria – perfect if you have kids and need to do some washing.
• Evening bike ride – We had a lovely evening bike ride through Spilimbergo after our pizza dinner. Very enjoyable thing to with kids.
• Aldi kids trolleys – The Aldi in Spilimbergo was very popular with our children as they had these mini kids trolleys.

Fiume Veneto

• Caravan Centre – In our search for gas we were recommended this place. It was great! The guy was super helpful and spoke good English, we got new gas, and they had lots of other bits you might need for your motorhome.
• Ristorante San Marco – This restaurant is right on the highway, a place I admittedly would normally overlook, and we were tempted by the McDonald’s nearby because it’s so easy and you know what you’re getting. However, I’m so pleased we tried this place. We were looking for somewhere for lunch while we waited for the Caravan Centre to open, and this had good reviews. The food was good and very good value.
• Macelleria Oscar Bortolussi  – A really good butchers, it even had some grassfed beef and a sign explaining about it.
• Organic shop – We also stumbled across a local organic shop called Dalla Mari Bio. It had a really nice selection of fresh produce and products.

Grotte di Pradis

I wrote a blog post all about our stay near the Grotte di Prais, you can read all about it and the caves, camper stop, and mountain restaurant here – Magical Mountain Camping in Northeastern Italy.

• Grotte di Pradis Caves – read more about them here.
• Camping Aire – read more about it here.
• Il Furletto – mountain restaurant, full details here.

Clauzetto

• Children’s playground – I’ve written about the children’s playground at Clauzetto here.

Grado

• Grado Camping Aire – Located at Piazzale Azzurri d’Italia, 1, 34073 Grado GO, Italy. Loads of campervans parked up here, lots of space, €4 for 24 hours. There is also another ‘Sosta Camper’ area opposite, which was more expensive but had services like electricity etc.

Terzo D’aquileia

• Laundry – iWash Lavanderia Self Service. We discovered a nice children’s clothes shop (with some toys to play with) and an excellent deli right next to this laundry. Great when you have all that time to occupy the kids!
• Children’s clothes shop – Girotondo Abbigliamento Per Bambini. Toys for the kids to play with while I shopped.
• Deli/Bakery –Panificio Bagolin , a great selection of breads and deli items. We stocked up on some great salamis and ham.

Travesio

We stayed for 10 nights in Travesio in a little flat we found through Airbnb.

• Airbnb Flat – It was perfect for our needs as a family of 4. I was able to work and we were in a good location for a few trips out.
• Local shop – There was a small local shop near the flat that was perfect for picking up a few bits and pieces.

Codroipo

• NaturaSi – organic grocery shop.
• Country park – children’s playground plus a great place for a bike ride with kids.

Latisana

• Latisana Camper Stop – Located at 33053 Latisana, Province of Udine, Italy. It appears to just be a Coop car park, but there is a grey water drain for motorhomes/campers. There were no signs we could see to suggest we could or couldn’t stay here, but it’s marked on Google Maps at a camper stop and many seem to have stayed here from online reviews and on park4night.
• Pasticceria Fantastia – a nice patisserie shop and cafe.
• Laundry – Self service laundry.

Bibione

Bibione is not technically in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region, but it’s only just outside. In spite of the mosquitoes and a lost shoe, we really enjoyed staying here.

• Beach aire – It cost €10 a day to stay here, paid to the man on the gate. There was a huge grassy space marked out into individual spots for motorhomes and campers. The beach was about a 5 minute walk away.

Arta Terme

• Arta Terme Camping Aire – Located off Via Nazionale, 1, 33022 Arta Terme UD, Italy behind the Terme Di Arta (thermal baths). Free, including electricity and water. Quiet site, we really liked it here and stayed 4 nights. Two playgrounds near by. Follow signs for the thermal baths, follow the road around the back of the baths and then take the steep road to the right. The aire is at the top.
• Children’s playground – There is a playground near the thermal baths but the nicer one we found is in Arta Terme itself.

Tolmezzo

• Laundry – Self service laundry with a few parking spaces outside.
• NaturaSi – organic grocery shop.
• Butchers/deli – Molinari Roberta & C Snc, a great butchers and deli, also selling things like jams and biscuits.
• Grocery shop – Screm Ortofrutticoli, the most incredible grocery shop, fantastic looking fruit and vegetables, and a few other items.
• Farmers market – When we went on Saturday there was a small farmers market on Piazza Centa (as well as a large market along Via del Din Renato). There were fruit and vegetables, cheeses, butter, yoghurt, and a few other products.

Lago di Cornino

• A brilliant blue lake. We didn’t actually stop and explore this lake due to a sleeping baby. However, it looked really beautiful and I think there were walking paths around it.