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Venzone is an Italian municipality with around 2,000 inhabitants in the province of Udine, located directly at the entrance to the Canale del Ferro.

The Church of Sant'Agnese is an ancient church, possibly dating back to the 12th century, and was probably built on the ruins of a pagan temple along the Celtic Way. As early as the 13th century, a hermitage of nuns, possibly affiliated with the Rule of St. Benedict, was attached to the church. They later moved to the village, where the monastery of the Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Heart is today. It is located on the saddle of the same name and nestles well below the saddle. Next to the church are well-preserved stone houses used for gastronomic and commercial purposes. It can be reached via two different routes. One leads up from Gemona, the other along a former military road from Ospedaletto via Fort Monte Ercole to the church.

The name Venzone is of pre-Latin origin and was mentioned for the first time in 923 AD as Clausas de Abiciones, later becoming Albiciones, Aventinone, Avenzon, Avenzone, and finally Venzone.

Small detour on a dirt road to reach Col di Zuca

Wonderful pretty little place

Sella Chianzutan is a pass in the Carnic Prealps at around 950 meters above sea level. It can be reached from both San Francesco and Tolmezzo: the latter is the toughest side, although the gradients rarely exceed 10%. Between 2010 and 2020, it was tackled three times by the Giro d'Italia: the first to pass through here were Ludovic Turpin, Sebastian Henao and Giovanni Visconti.

Cycling through Venzone, no matter which way you come, is almost always worthwhile because it is simply a lovely, typically Italian village with a tragic past and shows how powerful solidarity among the population can be.

Never too steep or busy the Sella Chianzutan rewards cyclists with a nice view at the top. Most of the climb coming from Tolmezzo is spent in the forest, which means few views on the surrounding mountains but also cooling shade. The descent towards Pozzis (and further to San Francesco) allows for incredible speeds!