We often get guests whizz off for the day to Venice, especially if this holiday might be a rare trip to Europe.. With just a 1 hour 50 min drive direct from the Lodge on a nippy, quiet autostrada, this can be a special day trip that is difficult for some to resist!

But just past Trieste, about half way to Venice from the Lodge there is the most fascinating, interesting and completely unknown Venetian City that we really need to tell you all about!

Palmanova is a small but perfect city and a fantastic example of what Venetians built when they actually needed to build a city.. instead of sitting down for a cup of tea & biscuit and a chat with the leaders of an existing town to decide that their existing city would become another very nice part of the Venetian empire!!

You get a very Italian type experience her ein the centre with grand statues and a big wide open plaza..

There are plenty of towns that ceded to the power and wealth of the Venetians and some very pretty ones too along the Slovenian coast, with the lovely pointy Venetian church towers popping up into the Mediterranean skyline..

But we have never seen anything like Palmanova on our travels..

Nowadays, just a few km off the main motorway that leads from Slovenia to Venice and Udine, the Venetians decided this was the perfect spot to fortify a whole city and built this perfect City Fortress in the shape of a star, with clear defensive lines of sight from every angle and two huge walls of defence circling around the city..

Really handy to see a city map for the 3 roads in and the circle roads flowing inside the city walls..

Napoleon and his army rocked up later in history and added a third Green Wall of defense, so if you are interested, it would be really great fun to walk these defences and appreciate how mighty AND hidden this city was!

The only evidence you might see from the motorway that there is indeed any settlement in Palmanova is the big modern out of town shopping village, which can be accessed from the same motorway exit, but fortunately then going the other direction from Palmanova..

This is a VERY untypical Venetian church WITHOUT the pointy triangle spire and low enouch not to be seen from outside the big walls..

Going Round & Round in Circles..

And the really neat thing inside the main walls is that the entire city is built on a grid system, but NOT squares, in circles.. So you could literally walk round and round and round, just like that song from Blur!!

The streets look so normal inside the city, but can you see the huge circle wall at the end of the road..

Each circle is a road with houses, apartments and shops along it, with three main roads leading from the three main entrance gate towers that lead to the huge town square, Piazza.. or Circle in this case!

As you approach the centre, ever decreasing circle roads shoot off from these main roads, so you end up with a completely circlular town!!

It is not only possible, but likely then that you will end up walking around in circles here to get to the centre!

Main Features..

The main Piazza is grand, lined with statues and colourful Italian style buildings including a chuch that does not look like the traditional pointy roof Venetain church..

Monday is often market day in Italy..

The church is still very grand and big, but not tall and we found the reason for this is so invading armies, especially the Turks, could not even see the church from a distance as the city walls were so huge!

So have a good look around the Piazza and then we would say go explore by one of the three main gates..

Everything done in Threes & multiples of 3..

Chatting with the nice lady in the local Tourist office we were stunned to find out that the shape of this entire city is based on the number three.. a religous meaning for the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.. the Holy Trinity!

So there are three huge main gates and the circular shape of the city is also based on a multiple of three with 9 ramparts or mini towers sticking out between the 3 gates to form this circle and create a perfect defensive star shape!

It takes about an hour to walk the entire circle around the outside of the City walls..

There are also 18 radial streets, so 15 plus the 3 main roads leading out to the perimeter of the city!

The three main towers are named after the direction they point, so one leads off to Venice, one to Slovenia and one to Udine!

We just love all this!

Mighty main gate..

Hike around the Towers..

There are several longer hikes you can do here following a path that goes around the outside of the city fortress.

Just walk down to one of the main gates and press the pedestrians button that will go green to make sure there are no cars going in or out of the narrow gate entrance when you are walking through.. 

Cute traffic light system for pedestrians to get through the main gates..

Then you can follow a path around the outside of the main walls, which rise up into massive green barriers as you walk away from each gate..

So either you could completely follow this path going from gate to gate OR you could climb up some stairs between two of the main gates and walk along the top of the city wall for one third of your hike!

A little stream runs around the entire outside of the city in the shape of the star with a little waterfall.

This is a really huge defensive block, here is one corner of the main defensive wall.. you can walk on the track way down below around the entire city..

The hike takes around one hour and you could also head up and out to the other massive third line of defence, which consists of more green hills dotted with bunkers and hillocks with another path leading around the city, but higher up..

If you remember everything here was as flat as a pancake and consider these are NOT natural hills, but were constructed, then the magnificene of this defensive effort should really hit home!

Parking and Having Fun inside the City Walls..

There is no parking outside the city walls, so you must drive in through one of the three main gates and go around in circles for a bit until you find a spot.

You can park anywhere for free mostly, but there is residence parking nearer the centre, so best to avoid really close to the Piazza and find a little side street a bit further out and MEMORISE a feature, a building or a part of the wall or something to walk to to find your car again.. maybe even count the number of circles you need to walk to the central Piazza Grande!

Plenty of parking spaces inside the city walls, just try to remember where you parked..

The city is actually not that big inside, so you coudl park in a quiet street near the city wall and easily walk from there into the centre. But is is really good fun to walk along some of the side streets a bit and you might be surprised how quickly you can feel completely lost!!

We do not normally tip restaurants in our secret places as there is usually such a good choice and also restaurants can close over time after this article has been written, so we do not want to let you down, but we do have to tell you there is a really lovely family restaurant just off the first circle called al Gambero and we have had a great meal the two times we viited Palmanova!

Really lovely local ristorante just one circle back from the main square..

Other stuff to Do..

So you are probably NOT gonna go see Palmanova on the same daytrip you do Venice, but Venice airport has lots of connections, so a very handy airport for the Lodge, so maybe you will stop off in Palmanova for a couple of hours on your way from or to the airport?

Maybe you will have an Italian day out from the Lodge and mix in the Austro Hungarian influenced city of Trieste on the way to Palmanova for a day of history and culture..

If you walk through one of the 3 main gates, be carefull no cars coming, as quite a squeeze..

Maybe you will combine some Roman history too with a visit to the largest remaining mosaic, just down the road from Palmanova in Aquilea..

Or how about having a seaside combo with half the day spent at nearby Grado or closer to the Lodge in Sistiana, even Muggia on the way home?

One of the three main gates and you can see the steps and stairs where you can walk on top of the main wall..

Some families arrive with teenagers hell bent on doing some clothes shopping, so you could easily grab some culture and a fab pizza in Palmanova old city, then go see the Shopping Village on the same side of the motorway, just a few km down the road.. if you must!

The difference in architecture could not be more different between this modern concrete shopping centre and how the Venetains built Palmanova..

The point is there is really so, so much choice of stuff to do and see around here and if you are interested and can make at least half a day to fully explore Palmanova, then we are quite sure you have seen nothing else quite like it before!