Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
RUSTIC TABLES
Friulian food is essentially rural food. Its bold flavours and earthy ingredients make the most of the
seasons and of traditional
miseria
(poverty) techniques, even when it's taken way upmarket. These
much-lauded country restaurants are all within an hour's drive of Udine, either in the Colli Orientali
or south towards the coast.
La Frasca
( 0432 67 51 50; Viale Grado 10, Pavia di Udine; meals €35; noon-3pm &
7-10pm Thu-Tue) The
frasca
tradition is similar to that of the
osmize,
a rustic place serving
salumi
(cured meats) and wine. Walter Scarbolo's relaxed roadside dining room has retained the
frasca
exper-
ience, and his fans gather for his artisan cured meats, menus that highlight a single seasonal crop and,
naturally, Scarbolo wines.
La Subida
( 0481 6 05 31;
www.lasubida.it
; Via Subida, Cormons; meals €50; lunch
& dinner Sat & Sun, dinner Mon, Thu, Fri) A famous family-run inn, with border-crossing dishes and
ingredients - rabbit, boar, flowers and berries - that bring the landscape to the plate in a very modern
way. Stay over in one of their stunning forest houses and wake to birdsong and rustling leaves.
Terre e Vini
( 0481 6 00 28;
www.terraevini.it
;
Via XXIV Maggio, Brazzano di Cormons;
meals €52; dinner Tue-Sat, lunch Tue-Sun) The Felluga family are Friulian wine royalty and their
19th-century
osteria
(casual eatery presided over by a host) looks out over the plantings. Feast on tripe
on Thursdays, salt cod on Fridays and goose stew or herbed frittata any day of the week.
Elliott
( 0432 75 13 83;
www.elliotenoteca.com
; Via Orsaria 50, Buttrio; meals €32;
10am-3pm & 5pm-midnight) Eat well on Friulian bounty at alfresco wooden tables looking out across
the Collio to snowcapped mountains and Slovenia. There are 12 B&B rooms upstairs with private ter-
races and more of that view.
Orsone at Bastianich (
Click here
) Nestled among the vines, this intimate inn and dining room uses
local produce and traditional dishes but there's a definite new world sensibility at work (the bar menu
goes even further, with a roll call of New York-Italian favourites).
TOP OF CHAPTER
Palmanova
POP 5340
Shaped like a nine-pointed star - although you'd need an aeroplane to check - Palmanova
is a defensively designed town-within-a-fortress built by the Venetians in 1593. Once
common throughout Europe, these military monoliths were known as 'star forts' or
trace
italienne
. So impregnable were the town's defences that Napoleon used and extended
them in the late 1700s, as did the Austrians during WWI. To this day the Italian army
maintains a garrison here.
