Friuli Venezia Giulia is not only about wine, of course. It is, first of all, an incredibly beautiful place where one can spend a really enjoyable holiday by touring its astonishing nature.
Made up mostly of little towns, you'll find out that many of them are tiny, precious jewels and kept well hidden by locals to protect them. And yet, you'll also find yourself warmly welcomed when you get there.

Sauris is one of these gems, in the heart of the Carnia mountains. A small town of only 400 inhabitants near Udine, in the Lumiei Valley, it's actually a renowned one for a very special reason. Of course, if it's not about wine, it'll be something about food... And in Sauris there's an extraordinary, long standing tradition of ham-making.

The Prosciutto di Sauris is unique in many ways. It's smoked with local beechwood, following an ancient method, and left naturally aging by the mountains' fresh air. In 2009 it received the IGP badge (Geographically Protected Identification), the Italian high quality standard acknowledgement for products specifically linked to a territory and its tradition, just as in this case. One of the oldest ham makers in Sauris is Prosciuttificio Wolf Sauris, run since 1862 by the Wolf family. Once a year, in July, the town celebrates its ham with a dedicated four day-festival.
Which wine is the best to drink with famous Sauris' prosciutto? Well you can choose among some of the local ones, like the white magic of the native Friulano, giving you fresh and fruity sensations with an almond touch.
Having been isolated for centuries, smoking is a traditional way of food preserving here, and it's applied not only to meat (a great variety of salami and cured meats), but also to fishes: a delicious treat in Sauris is the typical smoked trout.

An island... in the mountains
Its isolation brought about a few peculiarities, for example its still relevant German influence, especially to be noted in the language: its second name is the German Zahre. Sauris actually belongs to the Comitato Unitario delle Isole Linguistiche Storiche Germaniche in Italia, an association connecting small, historical German speaking communities in Italy.

Being at a 1.400 metres altitude, Sauris is surrounded by mountains and malgas (mountain cottages) where wonderful cheeses, like fresh ricotta, are made out of goat and cow milk – and you can also stay and sleep in some of them, like the stunning Malga Malins. The woods provide not only the precious beechwood, but also a lot of berries and, therefore, a number of yummy home-made marmalades.
The landscape is amazing and enriched by the presence of the crystal clear Lake of Sauris, created by the dam on Lumiei River. All around there are mountain peaks as high as Col Gentile (2.075 mt) or Monte Bivera (2.474 mt), so it's the perfect place for hiking, horse riding and skiing. In Sauris it's leisure time... all year round.
More infos at: Ufficio Turistico di Sauris.

Cover photo: Lago di Sauris, taken from the website www.scoprifvg.it
Ham photo courtesy of Markus Hendrich
Malga Malins photo taken from the website www.malghefvg.it

A wine whose name derives directly from the motherland. Such is the tie between Terrano, one of Friuli's native red wines, and its “terra”, land in Italian. A bond one could almost taste, as some of its local, traditional versions are so intensely full-bodied when you savour it in your mouth, giving the impression of experiencing a journey through its very roots. Terrano – made from Refosco grape variety – is a flagship of Friulian winemaking, in particular of the Carso territory. Actually it's included in the Carso (or carso-Kras) DOC's wine list, an area extending itself from the north-west of Trieste, along the sea and then up to Gorizia. Terrano is also produced in some places in nearby Slovenia, where it's called Teran.
The land plays a fundamental role in shaping such a peculiar taste. Karst soil is unique: rich in iron, Carso is a rocky, limestone upland lined by underneath caves which are innate to this peculiar kind of soil, due to its solubility by nature. All of this adds up to Terrano's deep red colour and its tannic feeling.

Red wine and rose meat: Terrano meets porcina!
Trieste can be such a peaceful retreat, for those seeking relax seated by the sea, while still enjoying a breath of fresh air coming from the near mountains, and surrounded by Middle-European styled buildings – like in the central Piazza Unità d'Italia, for instance, renowned for its cafés.
In the city you can enjoy some wonderful Terrano, of course, but you better team it up with some treats, unless you don't mind your head spinning around a bit, glass after glass...

Usually locals like to drink Terrano while munching on some typical red meat-based dishes: like the wonderful prosciutto in crosta, a smoked ham which is rolled in bread pastry and cooked in the oven, or the extremely delicious porcina (or porzina). Obviously made of pork meat (specifically pork neck), porcina is the top traditional dish of Trieste's cuisine: it's usually served warm, along with some grated horseradish (which they call “cren”) and mustard.

There are still many places not only serving it, but also keeping an old fashion setting which gives food a whole lot of extra flavour. Like the famous Buffet da Pepi, widely known in the city as “Bepi S'ciavo”, meaning “Bepi the Slovenian”, named after its very first owner back in 1897. Such an old history for this spot in the centre of Trieste, which has been maintaining its identity for three centuries and it's still going strong. You can also sit outdoors and lunch with a piatto misto, porcina or some other Austro-Hungarian inspired dishes.


Cover photo courtesy of Congerdesign
Bollito misto photo taken from Buffet da Pepi Facebook page

Now that the Prosecco hills in Veneto are an acknowledged UNESCO World Heritage site, let's trace back to its origins... in Friuli!
Did you know, for instance, that Prosecco is actually the name of a city? It's also called Prosek (in Slovenian) and it's about 9 km from Trieste, Friuli's main city, in the area known as Carso. During the Roman empire, it wasn't really a town yet: it was a sort of crossroad outpost where a lot of goods were stored, awaiting to be sent to their final destination. Among these goods, of course, there were a considerable amount of wines, and many of them were local wines...
But this is just one part of the story: in the XIV-XV century there was also a tower, near Trieste and facing the sea, known as Torre di Prosecco, surrounded by vineyards. And that's the second part completing the legend!

The making of a wine and... its DOC
First of all, one needs to know that Prosecco isn't the winegrapes' name: it's made mainly (up to 85%, more or less) from a white grape variety called Glera which has been cultivated for centuries in Friuli. Glera probably comes from there, most likely from the Carso area, and then spread through Veneto too.
The current World Heritage badge was given to the DOCG (Denomination of Controlled and Guaranteed Origin) including only Veneto's cities in the Conegliano-Valdobbiadene area, for specific cultural, natural and historical reasons. But there's a much larger Prosecco DOC (Denomination of Controlled Origin) established in 2009 including both regions, Friuli Venezia Giulia and Veneto, and nine provinces, four of which are in Friuli: Trieste, Pordenone, Udine and Gorizia.
Actually a large number of Friulian winemakers produce Prosecco and a high quality one: being the landscape stretched between the Adriatic Sea and the Carso mountainous area, it acquires a very peculiar taste. Around the town of Prosecco still lay many vineyards, and you can go and taste a glass (also of many other local wines) in some wonderful osmiza, along with some delicious ham.

The making of a name through the centuries
And now, back to our legends! So how did “Glera” become... “Prosecco”? There are a lot of stories out there, and though none of it is for sure, still we can give a few hints.

The word literally means a “deforested area”, thus must have looked the place back then (maybe woods were chopped down to enable the land to be cultivated). And this name had nothing to do with the sparkling white wine we now appreciate, until very late in time.
The wine linked to the Prosecco town area was called in ancient time Pucino, as it is mentioned in the Roman writer Pliny the Elder's Naturalis Historia (Natural History). Pliny (23-79 AD) wrote about a wine, “pucinum”, which had incredible longevity qualities and was made near Trieste.

At the beginning of the XVI century, one of the first associations between “pucinum” and “Prosecco” was made by Pietro Bonomo, a humanist and diplomat born into a wealthy family from Trieste, who also became bishop of the city in 1502. His family owned some vineyards around the Castello di Moncolano, also known as Torre di Prosecco (Tower of Prosecco), on the Gulf of Trieste and so he began linking the wine made there to Pliny's elixir, by calling it Prosecco. It was also a deliberate choice aiming to distinguish Trieste's grown wines from those of the neighbouring areas.

Since then, more people started addressing that wine as Prosecco, like the English writer Fynes Moryson in its “An Itinerary” (written between 1591 and 1595) and, later, Valeriano Canati, an abbot from Vicenza and a scholar, who dedicated an entire book to his region's wines, “Il Roccolo Ditirambo”, a dithyramb poem published in Venice in 1754 under the nom de plume Aureliano Acanti. You can still find and read a copy of it in a beautiful, wine only-themed library in Vicenza, “La Vigna”.
That's how the story goes, so far... But if you'd really like to know more about it, you could purchase Fulvio Colombo's interesting book “Prosecco Patrimonio del Nordest”, published by Luglio Editore.


Cover photo of Prosecco's church taken from the website www.percorsiprovinciats.it

Prosecco scored its highest goal at UNESCO. An achievement that was the result of a ten-year commitment: on July 7th 2019, the Colline of Prosecco di Conegliano and Valdobbiadene have been inscribed into UNESCO's World Heritage List.On these hills, located in the province of Treviso (in the Veneto region, north-east of Italy), Prosecco grapevines have been growing for centuries thus shaping also the landscape and that's the reason why UNESCO finally gave the approval to their inclusion as a cultural site.

“The landscape is characterized by ‘hogback’ hills, ciglioni – small plots of vines on narrow grassy terraces – forests, small villages and farmland”, says a statement on UNESCO's official website, “Since the 17th century, the use of ciglioni has created a particular chequerboard landscape consisting of rows of vines parallel and vertical to the slopes. In the 19th century, the bellussera technique of training the vines contributed to the aesthetic characteristics of the landscape”. The final decision was taken by the UN's World Heritage Committee during its 43rd session in Baku, Azerbaijan.

What makes Prosecco hills so special?
It's a succesful outcome for a long-time battle, endured by the Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG producers association which first promoted the nomination in 2008. During all these years, a great team work combined the efforts of producers, institutions, farmers and residents to point out and testify why the 97-square km Prosecco hills are so unique. The justification as a site of outstanding universal value takes into consideration many factors: its very specific, terraced natural landscape, the respectful interaction between people and nature during the centuries which gently molded its beauty through the vineyards, the cultural and artistical aspects (the hills having being depicted by famed Renaissance painters like Cima da Conegliano and Giovanni Bellini, just as they are still now) and the ongoing innovation as to vine cultivation techniques, in an area where vines have been growing for at least one thousand years.

A spirit which is perfectly embodied by the “Prosecco Route” (or Strada del Prosecco) project: a series of walking, historical and tasting itineraries that have been leading people through the area's nature and traditions for more than fifty years. Established in 1955, the Route promotes quality tourism experiences in the city of Conegliano and the nearby towns, along with food&beverage events. More than “just” a wonderful, tasty and sparkling white wine, so: drinking cool Prosecco is not the only reason why its homeland is worth a visit!

And, while you're there, make sure to tour not only the Prosecco hills in Veneto, but also the neighbouring Friuli Venezia Giulia region, where Prosecco vines grow too and whence maybe it also derived its name (probably from the Friulian town of Prosecco, near Trieste, also known as Prosek in Slovenian).

It's actually one out of 8 good reasons in Veneto and an astonishing, overall 55 ones in all Italy to come and visit the country: that's exactly the total amount of Italian UNESCO World Heritage sites.


Cover photo taken from Colline di Conegliano Valdobbiadene Patrimonio dell'Umanità Unesco Facebook page