san vito and sesto al reghena
 
You really need a car to get around, but it is possible to make a short trip across country from Pordenone to Portogruaro on the main railway line between Trieste and Venice, taking in a couple of sleepy local attractions on the way. At least six buses run from Pordenone's Piazza Risorgimento to SAN VITO AL TAGLIAMENTO , which has lapsed into slumber since its medieval heyday, retaining a handsome piazza overlooked by a few minor palazzi , the thirteenth-century Torre Raimonda and a rather plain cathedral. The Torre Raimonda houses a dull Museo Civico (Mon-Fri 10am-noon & 3-6.30pm; free), but the main reason to visit is the Museo Provinciale della Vita Contadina (Mon-Sat 9am-1pm; free), which gives a sense of the everyday realities of tradional peasant life in Friuli.

Four buses from San Vito (more on weekdays) serve SESTO AL REGHENA , 10km south which is the chief draw of the area. In the centre of the village, the fortified Santa Maria in Sylvis (daily 8am-7pm; June-Aug 8am-noon & 2.30-7pm; free) is one of the oldest inhabited abbeys in the world, having been founded by the Lombards in the eighth century. The interior of the tenth-century chapel is heavily frescoed, though much is barely visible now; one exception is the unusual image of Christ crucified on the tree of Jesse - the tree of life - in the south transept. But the abbey's treasures are found in the crypt, which houses three important pieces of stonework, including a carved Lombard chest known as St Anastia's Urn, a fourteenth-century altar panel in bas-relief and an extraordinary German pietà from the fifteenth century.

Transport on to PORTOGRUARO , a large industrial town just over the border in the Veneto, is similarly sparse, with around four buses daily. There's little reason to linger here other than to stroll down the main street, which locals claim looks like the Canal Grande without the water. It is indeed lined with arcades and Venetian-Gothic palazzi , but that needn't stop you getting straight on the train.