Day 418 – EU – Italy [Bertiolo to Udine]

27/05/21

33km

  From Bertiolo (Italy) to Udine (Italy)

Europe

Another flat country run in the green countryside of Venezia

Flat, green and quiet – Venezian country roads

At the time I planned this part of the Italian crossing, I was still hoping that Slovenia would reopen its borders to tourists. That’s why I had a route running towards Gorizia, at the border. My intention was to run towards Maribor where I had gotten stuck in November 2020 (Austria having closed its border and Slovenia no longer welcoming tourists). Six months later, Slovenia’s hotels are still closed to tourists. I am glad I did not simply wait for the country to relax its measures and decided to run in countries that were open. Anyway, it means that I am not able to cross into Slovenia, and my run in Italy will have to come to a close in Trieste in 2 days time.

Centre, Udine

Today was another beautiful run in the country, still very much on flat roads. Two more days of this – and then when I run in northern Greece and Turkey, I am sure I will find a lot more elevation again. I reached the city of Udine at noon. I crossed it twice by foot as I had to go for a PCR test ahead of my flight to Greece. I passed by the Piazza della Liberta, clock tower, castle and cathedral. A very pleasant city with magnificent renaissance buildings and many narrow cobblestones streets in the old town.

Udine, the Clock Tower

I noticed since yesterday how the names of towns on road signs are written in two languages. I had initially thought the second language was Slovenian since we’re so close to the border. It is in fact “Friulian” a dialect of northeast Italy. It’s the first time in this world run that I have encountered official signs written in both the national language and the local dialect. More than half a million Italian speak the dialect today, quite a number.

Check my daily run GPS data on or

Here is the map of today’s run: