FRIULI-VENEZIA GIULIA, Italy

REGIONAL CAPITAL:Trieste
PROVINCIAL CAPITALS: Gorizia,Pordenone, Udine
OTHER INTERESTING PLACES: Aquileia, Palmanova, Grado ,Legnano.

TERRITORY:
While the Adriatic coast is made up of little more than a series of lagoons and flat wetlands, the Friulian plains and Giulian palateus led up to the pine-covered Alps in the North, bordered by the Veneto to the West,Austria to the North and Slovenia to the East. The region is relatively unexplored and its cities are worth a few days. You can mix urbane culture with nature by heading for the Adriatic beaches, northern ski slopes or forest walking tracks.

PLACES TO SEE:
Trieste: Colle San Giusto; Canal Grande; Piazza dell’Unità d’Italia; the Acquario Marino; the Roman Theatre; Chiesa di Santa Maria Maggiore; Basilica di San Silvestro; Museo Civico Revoltella; Museo d’Arte Orientale; Museo del Mare.
Gorizia: Borgo Castello; the War Museum; Chiesa del Santo Spirito; the Synagogue.
Aquileia: the Roman town and its ruins; the Museo Archeologico.
Palmanova: Piazza Grande; Museo Civico Storico.
Udine:Piazza della Libertà; Palazzo del Comune; Loggia di San Giovanni; Arco Bollani; Galleria d’Arte Antica; the Cathedral; Oratorio della Purità; Palazzo Arcivescovile; Galleria d’Arte Moderna.
Cividale del Friuli:il Ponte del Diavolo (Devil’s Bridge); Tempietto Longobardo; Museo Cristiano.

REGIONAL CUISINES:
Try brovada,turnips fermented with the dregs of pressed grapes; gnocchi, potato,pumpkins or bread dumplings; cialzons, a ravioli-gnocchi hybrid stuffed with everything from cheese to chocolate; cren, a rather srong horseradish; jota, a thik soup of beans and sauerkraut; prosciutti san daniele, raw ham sliced off the hind leg of a slaughtered black pig.

TRADITIONAL FESTIVITIES:
In Pulfero on Mardi Gras there are suggestive Carnival feasts and parades. In Val di Resia the Carnival celebrations have been influenced by Slovenian traditions: there are music, dances and in the end a fantoccio(man-shaped wooden puppet) is burned.

Friuli, Italy - map