Friuli-Venezia Giulia

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Introducing Friuli-Venezia Giulia

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From the glories of Rome and the Church in Aquileia to the Habsburg atmosphere of Trieste’s famous cafés, this frontier region offers a disconcerting but delightful gamut of conflicting sensations. This is Italy, isn’t it? Sometimes one wonders.

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Friuli and Venezia Giulia, two vaguely delimited regions forced together by circumstance, have multiple identities. Beneath the Italian overlay bubble other cultural currents. In Friuli, much influenced by Venice and later Austria, locals speak their own language (Friulian, or furlan). Further east, the influence of the Slavic world (Slovenia is next door) and the results of centuries of Germanic (that is, Austrian) rule are still palpable today.

The region is a feast of surprises. You might know that some of Italy’s finest white wines are produced here. But did you know that San Daniele ham, one of the country’s most sublime porcine delights, is a prized Friuli feed, or that the world-renowned Illy coffee empire is a Trieste institution?

Surprising towns and villages are cast like so many die across the region’s surface. There is a sprinkling of everything: hiking and skiing in the northern Alpine areas of Carnia and around Tarvisio; beach time on the Adriatic; Lombard art in Cividale del Friuli; the chance to be in two countries (Italy and Slovenia) at once in the border town of Gorizia; bird-watching in lagoons; Udine’s Palladian gems.

Last updated: Feb 17, 2009

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  1. neckervd avatar
    RE: Agordo/Belluno Italy in February - What to do other than Ski?

    by neckervd 13 February 2011

    Check the list of the ski resorts of Belluno Province and be aware that there will be absolutely no snow below 1500m: http://www.schneeski.c…
  2. sushi75 avatar
    RE: Christmas 2010 Northern Italy to Venice Suggestions

    by sushi75 26 September 2010

    Northern Italy is a big area, so first of all you may want to clarify what you mean by "northern Italy". For Italians, Florence is properly…
  3. neckervd avatar
    RE: ROME SOUTHERN OR CENTRAL ITALY

    by neckervd 15 January 2009

    Every Italian school child knows to which part of Italy his region belongs: North: Aosta, Piemonte, Liguria, Lombardia, Emilia-Romagna,…

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