Udine and surrounding

The capital of the medieval Patria del Friuli, Udine, remains inextricably linked to the surrounding countryside, which supplies the local osterie with fine wines and the restaurants with local specialties. If you begin from here you will discover the true soul of the Friuli, a huge area ranging the Alps to the Adriatic Sea which reveals - without contradiction - castles and rural villages, wine cellars and museums. 

You will also discover the strange sounds of a thousand-year old language that hasn’t changed for centuries: the Friulian dialect is still used today in families, but it is also a literary language (among the moderns, the most famous writer in this dialect was Pier Paolo Pasolini) and it is recognised and protected as minority language by the European Union. In Friuli Venezia Giulia it is in good company. Here, in fact, three minority languages are used: in addition to Friulian, people also speak Slovenian and German, sometimes in peculiar variants, like the German variant of Sauris or the Slovenian variant of Resia. The presence of languages coming from the three main European linguistic stocks (Latin, Germanic and Slav) represents a unique case in Europe, which makes this territory special from the linguistic and cultural point of view too.

Not to be missed:

• the "Casa Cavazzini Museo di Arte moderna e contemporanea", with works by the famous brothers Afro, Mirko and Dino Basaldella
• Villa Manin, a magnificent Venetian villa where international art exhibitions are held