My husband and I will be staying for a week in October south of Salzburg. It appears we'll be a couple hours north of the Udine/Trieste area; closer to 4 hrs. to Venice. Does anyone recommend Udine/Trieste for sights and shopping vs traveling further to Venice which my husband would prefer not to do. Any recommendations for shopping in that area?

How far south of Salzburg?
Are you talking day trips? If so, stay in Austria and enjoy.

We're about 35 miles south of Salzburg (St. Johann im Pongau). We'll be taking day trips in Austria but I have a yearning to take a day trip to Italy as well. If there are no recommendations to the Udine area possibly going as far as Venice for an overnight trip.

Cortina is a bit more than 3 hours one way but well worth your time if you like to drive. I would drive about 2 hours to Lake Bled in Slovenia and perhaps even overnite in Ljubljana--both are worth your time. Trieste is not worth the drive.

I hadn't considered Slovenia but definetely will now. Thanks for the input on there, Cortina and Trieste. We'll definetely forget about Trieste. Do you happen to know about driving a car into Slovenia?

Hmmm ! Good point for rental car insurance---ask your vendor.

One of the prettiest little lakeside towns I've ever seen Hallstadt...
I can't remember the name of the hotel, but it is at the top of the town square, all wood inside beautiful

I haven't been to Trieste but Udine is a nice town with a beautiful main square and good for shopping. Cividale del Friuli is an interesting historical town too. The prosciutto di San Daniele alone is worth the trip. Nothing like what you get in the rest of italy let alone abroad!

Thanks for your input on Udine and Cividale del Friu. Do you happen to know if both would be do-able as a day trip together from south of Austria. It looks like Udine is about 2 hrs away from where we are staying. Any shopping suggestions in Udine?

Udine has all the smart clothes shops in the historic centre like all smallish Italian towns . I'm not sure about anything typical except for the lovely Babusse friulane - embroidered slippers. Also the prosciutto of course and Montasio cheese.
I'm not sure about distances.....

I like both Udine and Trieste. Neither is the typical touristy Italian town, but both can be charming in their own way. Udine is closer to you, so I would recommend sticking with that. Decent restaurants, nice shopping (though not overwhelming in quantity) and some good wine bars. They are in the heart of the Friuli which has some wonderful wines. If you go through Northern Slovenia, it is a beautiful route.

There is also an outlet near there for ceramics which I will have to dig up. I can post it later.

Cheers,
Jan

Thanks for your input. I would be very interested in the ceramic outlet if the info is easily accessible.