According to the writer Emilio Rigatti, few Italian regions can enumerate such a thing within their geographical boundaries high rate of historical, artistic and linguistic diversity such as Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Certainly for Italy, with its infinite dialects that bear witness to influences and historical legacies of all eras and of many ethnic groups, it is an established fact. But Friuli Venezia Giulia - warns Rigatti - is a world apart, over which it watches the Angel of Diversity, an imaginary creature imagined ad hoc, but which I believe can well represent the soul – or souls – of this Region for those who know it little”.
A composite region, made up of different parts with different histories, languages, traditions and cultures. Friuli Venezia Giulia is in fact a melting pot of peoples and cultures that are in their own relationship with the territoriesor they have built a mosaic of representations for those who want to visit it. A catalog that ranges from UNESCO World Heritage Sites to nature reserves, from historic cities to production districts, from archaeological parks to scientific ones, from ski resorts to seaside beaches. Alongside this is one gastronomic variety that brings together the cuisines of different cultural areas and bear the testimony of their crossing. And above all a top-level wine production, elaborated within an infinite number of cellars, where territorial differences are enhanced to offer wines of the highest level, exaltation of the biodiversity of this territory which is also the heritage of Italian biodiversity. A reasoned contribution to the knowledge of the "diversity" of this region comes from the TCI which has dedicated its latest red guide, in a renewed guise, to Friuli Venezia Giulia to account for so much richness by providing a series of geographical historical artistic linguistic economic reference frameworks with particular reference to wealth of the Friulian food and wine heritage.
Friuli and wine: an inseparable combination of valuable productions of ancient history
The thought immediately turns to Collio, the hilly geographical area divided between Italy and Slovenia which extends to the extreme eastern edge of the region, in the province of Gorizia, a continuous succession of terraced vineyards which intersperse the villages of ancient history. area of production of fine wines to which, since 1968, among the first in Italy, the Denomination of Controlled Origin has been recognized.
From the hills of San Floriano and Oslavia above Gorizia to those of Ruttars, Lonzano and Vencò on the banks of the Judrio, which once marked the border between Italy and Austria, there is a succession of hills marked by small villages, and vineyards , which extend for about 1.600 hectares.
Land of great whites, the Collio sees the prevailing production of Pinot, Friulian Tocai, Sauvignon and the renowned Collio Bianco, a DOC blend, while among the reds the Collio Rosso, Cabernet and Merlot excel.
An important heritage because wine, it can be said, is the element that more than any other characterizes Friuli-Venezia Giulia. A not very high wine production, proportionate to the regional size (just over 2% of the national total is bottled), evidence of a prolonged agricultural presence over time, corresponds to a quality universally recognized as one of the best.
Even the gastronomic panorama reflects the historical acceptance of diversity by the regional landscape. The confluence of Latin, Slavic and German cultures, crossed with those of people arriving from more distant places, as in the case of the port of Trieste, and mediated by local products, produces an offer that is never monotonous. Here the dishes of Italian and Central European cuisine are offered in variations linked to the flavors of what comes from the different parts of the region. A typical Gorizia dish is ham cooked in bread which, sprinkled with grated horseradish, can also serve as a single dish for a midday meal.
Latin, Slavic and German cultures converge in the flavors of the cuisine
Among the first courses, tasty soups are the jota (a minestrone of sour capuccinos, potatoes, beans and meat or pork rinds) and the Friulian barley and bean soup. The typical bread dumplings are of Central European origin, but enriched with Mediterranean flavours.
In the spring in the trattorias it is time for fragrant omelettes with herbs, while more autumnal are muset and brovade (cotechino with grated white turnips fermented in marc), goulash (spicy in infinite variations); kaiserfleisch (smoked pork sprinkled with fresh horseradish and accompanied with sauerkraut or bread dumplings), game with polenta, roast pork or veal knuckle. As a side dish, baked potatoes and kipfel (small fried crescents made with a dough similar to that of gnocchi). And then to mention the typical products of this region such as corn flour (the «blave»), the «rosa» (radicchio) of Gorizia, the garlic of Resia, the white and green asparagus, the cheeses of the Alpine pastures and from the cooperative dairies of the plain the «cjarsons» of Carnia the «frico» in its variations, to the fish of the lagoons of Grado and Marano, from the «gubana» of Cividale to the «presnitz» of Trieste. To conclude with desserts among which the Gubana reigns, a roll of puff pastry filled with dried fruit, raisins, candied citron, pine nuts and walnuts followed by putizza, tongs, strudel (with apples, plums or cherries ), donuts, Dobosch cake (Hungarian), palacinke (sort of omelettes filled with jam or chocolate), kugelkupf.
In short, a variegated and complex world over which he has always watched over, as Emilio Rigatti says from the "Angel of diversity" which is also found in the infinite variety of festivals and events which have firm roots in history and which, having a profound dealing with the culture of the Friulian people, attract curious and unhurried visitors. Among these are the rites of the Epiphany in Cividale, with the Messa dello Spadone and in Gemona with the Messa del Tallero, both with the corollary of re-enactments of medieval glories and in Zuglio the Kiss of the crosses, in which on Ascension Sunday the churches of Carnia they recognize from the sec. IV AD the primacy of the parish church of S. Pietro. Also noteworthy is the much more secular, but very ancient, Sagra dei osei, which in August attracts a large public to Sacile to watch the birds sing at dawn and the singing competitions between the birds and the birds, in memory of the right granted to city in 1351 by the patriarch of Aquileia to hold a market for birds caught in the woods of nearby Cansiglio.
