Sunday in Cividale del Friuli is a travel blog post about our family’s day trip to stunning Cividale del Friuli in Italy. We visited it in August two years ago. That was our daughter’s first international trip. She was less than 2 years old. It was a pure coincidence that our daughter’s first international day trip was to a town so close to Udine which was our son’s first international day trip when he was less than 6 months old. We all enjoyed our day trip to Cividale del Friuli immensely. It was our first trip abroad during coronavirus pandemic (we had vaccines and it was allowed to travel with a vaccine certificate).

Cividale del Friuli is a stunning Italian town, near Udine, situated in the northeastern part of Italy between the Adriatic Sea and the Alps. It’s quite close to the Slovenian border as well. That’s why we saw some bilingual signs. In 2011 Cividale del Friuli became a part of UNESCO World Heritage Site Longobards in Italy.

My plan was to just walk around the Old town and take in the sights and have ice-cream. Of course, we didn’t visit any museums. That’s a bit difficult with a nearly 2 year old and a nearly 4 year old kids as my kids were at the time of this day trip. I took spare clothes for kids and lots of snacks. It was sunny but then suddenly dark clouds appeared of nowhere and it rained for a short while before it cleared up again. I was very happy with what we managed to see and we even got to have a glass of Aperol spritz while the kids gulped down excellent Italian gelato. We found a free parking site just at the entrance of Old town ( parking in Italy is usually free on Sundays). We strolled down the narrow cobbled streets and found our way to the symbol of Cividale del Friuli-a magnificent Devil’s bridge.

Top landmarks and sights of Cividale del Friuli

Monastery of Santa Maria in Valle (including the Lombard temple, a part of UNESCO World Heritage site)

We walked towards the monastery but didn’t get the chance to get inside because it’s not really an interesting sight for small kids.

Celtic hypogeum (underground rooms)-unfortunately it was closed during our visit. I really wanted to visit it.

Centro Internazionale “VITTORIO PODRECCA- Teatro delle Meraviglie di Maria Signorelli” dedicated to puppet’s theater. Honestly, we didn’t want to pay the ticket and wear a face mask to get inside. Our kids often visit puppet’s theater but I felt that they were too young for an exhibiton/musueum of this kind

Medieval house in Borgo Brossana (14th century). We entered the house and explored it (it was free entry). That was very interesting for our kids to see how people lived in the past. We also saw the blacksmith’s workshop (free to enter too).

Palazzo dei Provveditori veneti-it houses the National Archeological museum which is definitely worth a visit, but maybe next time

Palazzo Comunale and the statue of Julius Caeasar – lovely square with the old Town Hall and the statue of Casear because he founded Cividale del Friuli. We had drinks and ice-cream at this square.

Cathedral of Cividale del Friuli (Santa Maria Assunta) -we entered the beautiful cathedral

Devil’s bridge over Natisone river– the symbol of Cividale del Friuli. Truly remarkable bridge dating from 15th century, built by the Devil himself (herself? ) according to a legend. We descended the stairs down to the river and kids enjoyed a bit of pebble throwing.

Piazza Paolo Diacono with a fountain (and there were some art installations at the time of our visit), another lovely square with cafes and restaurants

I came across a plaque about Romeo and Juliet. Supposedly, the great love story by Shakespeare was based on an Italian short story from this area. This plaque is in a small park on the left side of the Devil’s bridge. Great view of the bridge from this park.

Many churches and palaces and small squares and cobbled streets

Cividale del Friuli is a perfect small Italian town full of cultural and historical sites but not overrun by tourists. You can even say that it’s a proper hidden gem. You can visit both Udine and Cividale del Friuli in the same day if you want to, it’s doable. The main city of this Italian region (FVG) is Trieste with its traditional coffee houses and beautiful seaside castle of Miramare.

Have you heard of this Italian gem? Would you like to visit Cividale del Friuli?

We visited Cividale del Friuli at the end of August 2021.

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