Complaining about overtourism is a thing now. This is annoying and lacks self-reflection because—duh—did you think being a tourist was only okay for you and not other people? I mean, I get it because within the past year I’ve been to both Florence and Barcelona and those are some well trodden destinations but even in those towns it was just specific areas that were packing in the crowds.

But hey, here’s a suggestion, if you’re really serious about getting outside the tourist bubble: the answer is Udine.

Udine is about 90 minutes by train from Venice in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region in the far northeast corner of Italy. The architecture has a strong Venetian influence (there are even some petite canals around) but what it doesn’t have in common with Venice is a gazillion tourists. In fact, I really didn’t see many tourists at all, outside of biking tour groups from Austria. People were speaking German to me and hey, I take it as a compliment that they thought I was the wife of a tan Austrian grampa with his package permanently showcased in biking spandex.

My plan was to use the town as a base to see several other small towns easily accessed by short train rides: this was a great idea…until I got to Udine and found out the local train was shut down for construction or something. The trains were replaced by some largely inscrutable bus substitutions—where did they stop? what was the schedule? who knows? But I more or less made it work, with a bit of cussing and extra snacks.

While Udine’s cathedral was interesting enough on the outside, the interior was one of those inevitably bland baroque renovations.

On the other hand, this sign in front of the cathedral of a family absolutely enraptured by the local catholic newspaper is pure sensationalism.

While I visited Udine’s many fine museums, I found my favorite site was the town itself. To me, a perfect town has a spacious pedestrian zone, piazzas with street musicians, lots of grocery stores and tan Austrian grampas in bike shorts a lively evening passeggiata.

Other than the nightly onslaught of mosquitoes (and the shut down train), I think Udine is pretty much perfect.

How I got to Udine: my flight to Milan was cancelled and United rerouted me to Venice where I got on a train to Udine.

Where I slept: Mercatovecchio.  Price: €170 for a room with a kitchenette.  Recommended: yes