Living in Aviano: a town on the plain, with Piancavallo inside its borders

Aviano, Davian in Friulian, has 8,990 residents. Its land starts on the plain at 93 m and rises to 2,198 m in the Prealps; the main town sits at 158 m, Piancavallo at about 1,277 m. The air base bears the town's name too: an Italian Air Force airfield named after «Pagliano e Gori», under Italian command and host to the US Air Force's 31st Fighter Wing.

It suits those who want snow and trails without living at altitude, or who work between Pordenone (22 min) and the Veneto. Driving times, no traffic: Venice airport 1 h 4 min, Udine 1 h 13 min, Ljubljana 2 h 31 min, Klagenfurt 2 h 32 min, Munich 5 h 33 min. Less so anyone after an afternoon on the beach.

Piancavallo is one of the ski areas PromoTurismoFVG runs for the Region.

No municipality in the Pordenone foothills logs more tourist nights: 116,200 in 2025, 45% of them from December to March and 35% in summer. Two seasons, not one.

The nearest beach, Bibione on the Veneto coast, is 1 h 10 min away: just over the hour (sea and slopes within an hour).

The CRO (Centro di Riferimento Oncologico) is a research hospital with IRCCS status: 130 beds in 2023, across oncology, surgery, haematology and radiotherapy. It has no A&E, and the regional register of emergency departments does not include it.

• A&E, open 24 hours: Santa Maria degli Angeli in Pordenone, a 19 min drive with no traffic (hospitals and A&E). Its cardiac catheter lab and stroke unit make it the nearest heart and stroke hub as well.
• Major trauma, heart and brain surgery: Udine, 1 h 12 min.
• Phone: 112 in an emergency; 116117, the out-of-hours doctor, for anything that can wait.

OMI valuations for an ordinary flat, first half of 2026, in the 5 zones:

• Piancavallo: €1,100/m²–€1,500/m²;
• main town (Piazza Duomo, Piazza Matteotti, Via Roma): €700/m²–€1,050/m²;
• Castello, Costa and Pedemonte: €750/m²–€1,000/m²;
• Marsure: €600/m²–€850/m²;
• farmland and small hamlets: €550/m²–€800/m².

The median of the zones, €875/m², is the highest figure in the foothills (the median municipality there stands at €650/m²); €200,000 buys about 230 m². Since 2021, zone for zone, the median change is 0.0%; the biggest rise came in Castello-Costa-Pedemonte, then valued at €600/m²–€880/m². Sales in 2025: 198 homes, up 16.3% on the year before.

Rents: €2.5/m² a month to €3.7/m² a month in every zone except Piancavallo, which OMI does not quote; the range is unchanged since 2021. The midpoint, €3.1/m² a month, sits below the regional median (€3.3/m² a month) and would yield 4.3% a year, gross.

In 2011 the census found no resident in 51% of dwellings, holiday homes included. ILIA, the regional stand-in for IMU, on a second home: 0.70% if notified to the council, 0.89% if not (ILIA and second homes).

Solstice light at the municipal building: 8 h 26 min of direct sun; closer to the mountain the day shrinks: Giais 7 h 20 min, Piancavallo 6 h 48 min, with the last ray at 14:59. One point per place, clear sky: the method.

• In town (ARPA grid, 1991–2020): January 3.1 °C, 79 nights below freezing, 33 days above thirty degrees.
• At Piancavallo (ARPA station, 2011–2025): January −1.8 °C, July 15.4 °C, about 140 frost days.
• Rainfall: 1,770 mm yearly in town, normal for the foothills (1,830 mm in the median municipality).

• Fibre: just 18.4% of homes have it to the door; remote workers should check the exact street before signing anything (internet in the villages).
• Trains: Aviano has a station of its own, 1 min away, but on Friday 23 October 2026 the departures board listed 14 trains, every one bound for Sacile or Maniago. For Udine without changing, drive 20 min to Fontanafredda. A new timetable starts in December.
• Earthquakes: seismic zone 2. INGV records the strongest shaking observed here, grade 7 on the MCS scale, in 1812, 1873, 1936 and 1976 (seismic zones).