San Daniele del Friuli

We had a great nights sleep not having to worry about what the mouse might be chewing, and woke up at 8am.
We had nothing planned for today and as it was the weekend I wasn’t in any hurry to head over the border to Slovenia because we would be going on hikes in touristy areas so I thought it would be better to wait until during the week when the kids are at school to get there, which left today and tomorrow pretty much free.
At 10:30am after a very lazy start to the day we decided to head into the town Center of San Daniele del Friuli. It wasn’t a very big town and it really didn’t look like it had anything in it except for pizza restaurants and wine shops but since we’ve been in Italy, it has so far exceeded all expections. The people are really friendly, the drivers aren’t all crazy and there is a wow around almost every corner. Also we’ve been so surprised at the amount of free Motorhome areas and wild camping is widely accepted. So now it was time to find out what the high streets of Italy are really like.
We left Wanda and headed back towards the Pizzeria we had found last night and once there we carried on up until we came to the town square, this is where the majority of the shops are.
Unfortunately the first shop I saw was a Gelato shop and promptly stopped outside until Ellie brought us both a double scoop each in a big tub. This time I had biscotti and cheesecake flavour. Ellie had Pistachio and honey and vanilla. We think pistachio flavour is our new favourite but it was all delicious.
From there we headed to a shiny shop that had all sorts of handmade decorations and ornaments for the house. Here we brought our Italian Christmas tree bauble in the shape of a star with a gonk sewn on and Ellie brought a handmade item as a Christmas gift.
We carried on walking through the little Italian street and as we came back to the town square Center there was a huge horn like an air raid siren going off and then all of the church bells rang out. We never did workout what the horn was but the bells were unbelievably loud and lasted for 5 minutes.
I said it was the start of wine time as all of the wine restaurants had started to fill up and it was only 12pm.
From the Center we headed down another side street into our first Italian church which was very Romanesque with its huge marble pillars and marble alters. It was quite something.
After that church, almost next to it was a tiny little church that was also open. This church was built in the 13th Century and to our amazement it had a spectacular Muriel covering the back wall and ceiling. It was an incredible sight and the more we looked the more we saw. The detail was incredibly intricate.
From there we headed down another little side street and back towards the town square where we found an amazing shop where the lady inside made individual one off handmade wooden angels. It was in this shop we made our biggest purchase of the trip as a wedding present for my sister.
Completely spent out we made a dash back to Wanda, and I hoped we wouldn’t pass anymore shiny shops on the way.
We didn’t.
Back in Wanda I set the Sat Nav and we headed to the next town where we stopped at our first Italian Lidl and stocked up on dinner items and copious amounts of Italian sweets for Ben and Leah. I also managed to get a real Italian Tiramisu which was the final thing on my Italian foods to try.
From Lidl we headed 6 miles down the road to the town of Tarcento, here there was a beautiful free aire that overlooks the river torre and had a footpath running right next to the river for hikes.
We arrived here at 3pm and somehow the day had just slipped away. We sat in the back of Wanda and had a cup of tea and I looked on my app to find a decent walk and at 3:30pm we set off down the footpath on a 5 mile hike to find a waterfall.
The river torre seemed to be absolutely gushing past at a hell of a rate and as we neared the town we could see debris and logs that had washed up onto the paths in the recent past. There was also a large section of the footpath that was closed and we had to take a big diversion through the Center of town.
Back on the footpath we came to a small suspension bridge crossing the river and even though we didn’t need to cross it, we walked across to see the river rushing over the top of a massive weir. It really was an incredible force of nature.
We carried on walking up a gentle slope and onto the streets passing by all the Italian homes. Anyone that was outside always greeted us.
Finally we came to a wooded area and a small unmade footpath, we could hear the waterfall rushing in the distance and followed the directions down the side of the a big hill towards the river.
Back at ground level the path had been washed away completely and all that remained were piles of dead logs and debris. We couldn’t get past and even if we could one wrong move and we’d have been taken downstream.
We climbed back up the hill to the footpath and then continued along the footpath as far as we could. Here we could see the waterfall and it actually turned out to be controlled by a hydraulic dam that had recently been opened, hence all the recent flooding and remaining debris.
We took a few photos and even though it wasn’t what we thought we were hiking too it was still an amazing sight and we’d had a good walk.
We started to head back towards Wanda, stopping to pet a very friendly cat on the way and when we reached the town we walked right through the centre. Fortunately it was now 5pm and all of the shiny shops were closed. We knew it was 5pm because the Bells from all 6 churches started ringing at once and lasted 5 minutes. It was so loud we couldn’t hear each other.
The bells done the same again at 6pm and every 15 minutes after until 7pm. From 7pm they just rang for 1 minute every hour.
Our Motorhome spot might seem tranquil but I don’t know if we’ll actually get any sleep. The Italians love church bells more than the French and Spanish put together.
Back in Wanda, at 6:30pm we had pasta for dinner and then as we have access to free water I decided to have a shower and then we settled in for the night, hoping the church bells will stop at 10pm.Read more