We are planning the Friuli area portion of our trip to Italy this spring. Wondering where is the best base and hoping to find an agritourismo or b&b in the countryside. (Will have a car -- Nightly budget about $150 u.s. tops... we hope.) Any other recommendations welcome!

I'd suggest staying out in the countryside--either B&B or agriturismo. It's lovely country and a short trip into Venice or into the big mountains.

Last time I stayed in Udine, I didn't realize it was Roman city laid out in a big circle. It wasn't built for automobiles, and we had difficulties parking.

Finding a restaurant where we were staying was also difficult, however there are plenty of bars and gelatini places. It's unique.

I've never been, but have seriously considered http://www.faula.com/ on many occasions. If we ever decided to stay in that area, I definitely plan to stay there.

We stayed at the Relais Russiz Superiore outside of Cormons and loved it. It is set in the middle of a vineyard and the rooms have great views of the countryside and mountains. It was an easy drive to Cormons, where we visited a fantastic dairy (Zoff - where they also have rooms to rent), drank wine at the enoteca and ate some fantastic local prosciutto (D'Osvaldo).

We would return in a heartbeat!

I can highly recommend La Faula agriturismo, which is the link provided in eluckhardt's post. In fact, it's my favorite place to stay in all of Italy. I've stayed there three times, and will return again in a couple of months.

La Faula is a wonderfully friendly, beautiful, and relaxing place to stay, in a spectacular and lightly-touristed part of Italy.

I would stay at La Subida and eat and drink at La Subida. However I am not sure what the cost of lodgings is in your time frame.

http://www.lasubida.it/lasubida/en/index.php

The wine in that area (around Cormons) is so good that I would want to stay somewhere that served dinner so that I didn't need to worry about driving after dinner. Since food in that area can also be outstanding then I would definitely want to stay where the cooking for the evening meal is outstanding.

I just read Bamaman's comments. There are extremely large public parking lots at the edge of Udine and it is quite easy to park there and walk into the historic center (you shouldn't drive inside the centro).

I don't know where in Udine Bamaman was located (was it actually in Udine?) but the city is often cited for having more eateries per capita than any similarly sized city in Italy. There is no difficulty finding places to eat in every price category in Udine.

Sandra, thank you for listing La Subida! I was wracking my brain for the name and was coming up blank!

Russiz was a 5-minute drive from La Subida and we ate at both his "upscale" restaurant and his trattoria, both of which we loved! He also has vacation rentals behind his trattoria, which were very reasonably priced!

I would also consider staying here:

http://www.tripadvisor.com.ph/Hotel_...ia_Giulia.html

Another great suggestion by Sandra! We stopped there twice for lunch and it was great. It is actually run by Elda Felluga of the Livia Felluga wine family, so there is Livia Felluga for sale by the bottle in a small adjacent store. Very good wine list and really good food. We saw a couple of the rooms upstairs and they were charming. Good parking also.

thanks so much for these tips!
ekc--the dairy (zoff) looks like just the ticket for an afternoon activity... this is the kind of place we love to visit.
elu- & sosoir-- the agriturismo 'la faula' looks beautiful and gets outstanding reviews (only 1 poor one from someone who didn't actually stay there!)and the price is right. (also.. hubbie is a birdwatcher and it's a good sign that they have some bird videos on their web page!)
sandralist-- we will see about dinner at la subida... it has gone onto our list if we can budget it in.
relaise russiz looks amazing but price is too steep... however, i see that they have a trattoria... have you eaten there? (Antica Trattoria Alle Viole) . this has given me a great start. thanks much!

Our TR mentions the agriturisom we stayed in outside Udine.
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...udine-area.cfm. (Sorry couldn't get the copy and paste to work on iPhone.

yestravel-- thanks much-- i bookmarked it to read more carefully later!

Just wanted to report in... we did end up staying at La Faula... and honestly, we were a little suspicious after making contact and reservation... we felt like the owner was a little short with us. THE OPPOSITE ended up being the case. We LOVED La Faula and the owners were so very very kind and friendly and helpful. A lovely place, and the dinners were wonderfully local, casual and delicious. Thanks for the recommendation, as well as many others which we took to heart. Love this forum!

tt

Nice to hear of your good experience and hope you will either add to this thread reports of your other experiences in the area, good or bad, or do some sort of trip report. I happen to like the province of Friuli-Venezia-Giulia a great deal, for sights, food, wine, atmospherics, history, the future -- everything! But others contemplating a visit might like to hear a whole variety of perspectives.

There is very little info for most people to go on so I feel certain anything you can add is information something some traveler somewhere is looking for.

Have been in the area a couple of times briefly and loved it, especially the food.

kawh,

Thanks for reporting back in. I'm so glad you enjoyed La Faula! It really is a special place. I had another wonderful stay there myself just a little over a month ago. I wish I were there right now, relaxing on the pergola with a glass of wine, but I'm sure I'll be back again before too long.