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Journey to the top of Friuli
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| Carnia can be considered a world apart, even compared to the rest of Friuli. Visitors to this area, which sits near the Austrian border, rediscover the spirit and the beauty of real mountains. An unspoilt landscape bursting with rivers, Alpine lakes, forests and fields scented with dozens of aromatic and officinal plants. The specialities of its culinary traditions are to be savoured in the midst of the mountains that have preserved and handed down their secrets, breadth of perfumes and flavours. |
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TOLMEZZO AND THE TAGLIAMENTO VALLEY |
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The entrance to the Carnia area for those arriving from Venice is Tolmezzo, historical capital of the region, situated about fifty kilometres north of Udine.
This city of ancient origins was probably founded by the Romans and became an important textile centre in the eighteenth century thanks to the business man Jacopo Linussio, who opened a factory which even exported its textiles abroad.
Traces of those times can be found in the Borgāt, the old town, which is characterised by elegant stone palazzos and porticoed streets. In Piazza Mazzini, visitors can see the Church of Santa Caterina, built in the late eighteenth century, during the same period as the Duomo di San Martino, designed by Domenico Schiavi, which faces onto the central Piazza XX Settembre.
In Tolmezzo it is advisable to visit the Museum of Popular Arts and Traditions located within Palazzo Campeis. Its twenty rooms reveal many characteristics of the world of Carnia to the visitor, who moves through household scenes (in the kitchens of this area, the hearth is located in the middle of the room, surrounded by benches) and the shops of craftsmen, faithfully reproduced with furniture, furnishings and objects from different eras. One of the museum's rooms is entirely dedicated to traditional spinning and weaving, with many examples of Jacopo Linussio's products.
This form of craftsmanship has survived to the present day at Villa Santina, the first village one comes to when arriving from Tolmezzo in the Tagliamento Valley, where it is possible to buy sheets, curtains, tablecloths, linen, cotton and silk-mix bedspreads that reproduce the designs of ancient fabrics housed in Tolmezzo's museum.
In the same village, the Vecchia Osteria Cimenti is a typical inn built entirely from stone and wood, and is one of the places where visitors can try out the local specialities. An example of these are Cjarsons, namely large ravioli stuffed with a number of sweet and savoury ingredients: ricotta and aromatic herbs as well as potatoes, apples, pears, raisins, cinnamon and jams. Frico, on the other hand, is a kind of crunchy cheese and potato pie which in Carnia is usually enriched with herbs, onions or potatoes. Soups made with potatoes, sauerkraut, beans and sometimes barley are also typical. Last of all there is the cuincjade polenta, swimming in milk, butter and ricotta, and muset e brovada, an unusual type of sausage typical of Friuli aromatized with spices and served accompanied with turnip that has been left to ferment in wine rape. Those that should decide to stay a night in one of the eight rooms above the restaurant can try the delicious apple, rhubarb, mint and pumpkin jams for breakfast, all of which are homemade.
From Villa Santina it is possible to continue towards Enemonzo. The entrance to the village is marked by a leaning bell tower which stands on its own. Here, it is also possible to stop for a spot of shopping in the Caseificio Val Tagliamento dairy, which offers a wide variety of excellent cheeses, including the only salty cheese produced in the region: its unmistakeable flavour is conferred by the prolonged sousing and the addition of cream. There are also typical cured meats and confectionery, such as the famed Esse biscuits which are one of Carnia's best-known specialities.
From Enemonzo, the trip continues on towards Ampezzo by taking a narrow but stunning road full of hairpin bends and tunnels dug out of the rock face, which lead one to the solitary village of Sauris, in the upper reaches of the valley of the Lumiei river. |
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SAURIS AND THE ALPINE PASTURES |
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Not far from an emerald lake where one can take a dip in summer or paddle in a canoe, surrounded by fields, pastures and Dolomite mountain peaks, Sauris is the highest of Friuli's municipalities: a little paradise subdivided between the three areas of Sauris di Sopra (Upper Sauris), Sauris di Sotto (Lower Sauris) and Lateis. Along with Italian, the locals speak an archaic German dialect, a hangover from the Carinzia-Tyrol community that lived there in medieval times.
In addition to the language, other signs of this ancient culture can be found elsewhere, such as in the architecture: the houses of Sauris are unique in all of Carnia, and are built with stone only on the ground floor level, whilst the top part is built entirely from wood using the blockbau technique, with overlapping trunks that have corner joints. Wooden tiles known as scandole also cover the sloping roof of the house.
The carnival for which Sauris is famous even outside of Carnia also has a medieval flavour: its nocturnal procession with traditional wooden masks is animated by dancing, singing and mouth-watering pit stops in front of the bonfires.
At Sauris di Sopra, the Legnostile shop sells traditional sculptures and masks alongside more contemporary works. Also in the upper part of the village, one can visit the fifteenth century church of San Lorenzo which, with its soaring cusp-shaped bell tower, stands out on the slopes of the mountain, behind the residential centre. Inside it preserves a priceless Flügelaltar: an altar in engraved, carved and painted wood dating back to the sixteenth century.
The exhibitions on local culture, promoted periodically by the ethnography centre S' Haus van der Zahre in the rooms of a restored rustic building, are also of interest.
On descending to Sauris di Sotto, following a visit to the Sant'Osvaldo Sanctuary, one can stop in at Wolf, a small business with a shop and a tasting room which has been producing one of the most renowned delicacies of Carnia since 1862, namely Sauris ham, with its characteristically aromatic and slightly smoky flavour.
This smoking is a technique which has always been used by mountain populations to preserve meats and cheeses during the winter and, as in days gone by, is only done using beech wood.
A taste of Sauris ham is a fixture in the area's restaurants. Of these, the Alla Pace restaurant is particularly recommended for its rustic atmosphere and its traditional, genuine and substantial cuisine: fresh pasta "rags" with a ricotta and speck sauce, cjarsons with herbs, barley and bean soup, pork ribs with sauerkraut and deer with polenta (Sauris di Sotto, tel. 0433.86010).
The setting of the Kursaal is more innovative, where the robust, traditional dishes are given a lighter and more refined twist (Sauris di Sotto, tel. 0433.86202).
At the restaurant of the Riglarhaus hotel, immersed in the tranquil green of the area of Lateis, the real speciality is the grappa, even more so than the cuisine: these brandies are flavoured with home-grown aromas such as wild mountain celery, gentian, wood sorrel, aniseed, juniper, calendula and lemon balm. In the summer, the small hotel provides a good base for reaching the numerous Alpine pastures near Sauris on day trips.
The traditional dairies reveal businesses that are slowly disappearing. From June to September, they are protagonists of the interesting "Mondo delle malghe" events which involves the entire region. Each valley organises trips and guided tours of the places where the milk is processed, and where tastings of surface butter, fresh, smoked and franta ricotta (namely ricotta that has been seasoned with salt and pepper and left for forty days) as well as Alpine pasture cheese that matures "al fresco" for sixty days, help walkers to forget the climb up. |
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 Riglarhaus
Address: Frazione Lateis, Sauris (Ud)
Tel: +39.0433.86013
Fax +39.0433.86049
Website: http://alberghi.carnia.org/riglar
Prices: from 34 to 76 Euros
A rustic, familiar setting ideal for a relaxing holiday set in the midst of nature.
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