Brochure AT Carnia INGLESE

The lands
of Carnia
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Houses in stone and wood, ancient carnival
rituals, a cuisine imbued with flavours lost
elsewhere, and above all the people, who in Forni
di Sopra, Ovaro, Raveo, Sauris and Sutrio help you
rediscover the slow rhythm of times gone by.
Authentic architecture
H
olidaying in one of the “borghi
autentici” (authentic villages) in
Friuli Venezia Giulia, in Forni di
Sopra, Raveo, Sauris, Sutrio and Ovaro,
means being hosted by a rare quality of
people, people who love welcoming others
into their community and helping them
rediscover the slow rhythms of times gone
by. People, places, flavours and traditions
all speak of a magically preserved
authenticity. Forni di Sopra, dominated
by the majestic peaks of the Dolomites,
welcomes you into its spacious
courtyards and narrow lanes
featuring rural houses in
stone and wood, with wide
upstair landings where hay
was once dried. Raveo,
nestled in a sunny dell
at the foot of Col Gentile,
exudes the charm of
an authentic village.
Sapori di Carnia, its
village food festival,
celebrates the
flavours of a cuisine
imbued with the culture
and the history of these
places. In Sauris, a marvellous
village of German origin, you will be
welcomed into mountain-style dwellings
built in stone and wood. The influence
of the German culture can be seen in the
village’s countless traditions and folk
festivals, including the Carnival, one of
the oldest across the Alps. Finally, a stroll
through the lanes in Sutrio, a beautiful
mountain village, will lead you to a host
of workshops of skilled artisans who,
during the Magia del Legno festival each
September, demonstrate their great
creativity and skill in the courtyards of the
houses: the same courtyards where the
nativity scenes made by the marangons,
the local wood sculptors, are carefully
displayed every year at Christmas.
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The taste
of tradition
Sapori di Carnia: a festival of the flavours of a land where nature reigns
at the dining table too. Simple, genuine ingredients give life to ancient
dishes or to creatively revised recipes. From the wild herbs, which season
omelettes and gnocchi, to the cjarsòns, frico and...
M
outh-watering and strictly seasonal,
Carnic cuisine uses genuine, natural
ingredients, which the mountain
climate imbues with a special, richer flavour.
This typical cuisine faithfully mirrors its
people, and was developed over the centuries
and naturally conserved in valleys, rivers and
woods which were more or less hidden by a
backdrop of mountains. However it is also a
renewed cuisine which adds an original touch
to traditional dishes, embracing the evolution
of taste. For lovers of genuine food, Carnia is
a trove to discover.
In Sauris/Zahre, give in to the
temptation of its exquisite
prosciutto crudo: this cured ham
has been produced from time
immemorial, using original
techniques and is lightly
smoked to give it an
unmistakably sweet flavour.
In July, there is a two-weekend
festival in its honour: a must for
gourmets. The famed hams are ideally served
with the beers brewed in the Sauris di Sopra
beer factory.
The delicious Carnic herb-based cuisine is
also of very ancient tradition. In spring, amid
the mountains of Forni di Sopra, there is a
joyous flourishing of wild herbs and flowers,
such as silene, mountain asparagus and
chicory; these are the basic ingredients for a
number of fanciful dishes that can be tasted
along itineraries calling in at famed
restaurants. And to delight all gourmets, every
year during the Carnia in Tavola food festival,
a number of famous restaurants propose their
own menu, each based on a different dish. It
is hard to resist the temptations of the palate:
you can try the most traditional local dishes,
such as cjarsòns (ravioli with a sweet filling),
frico con polenta (a fragrant dish of malga
cheese fried with potato and served with
polenta), pork shops with savoy cabbage,
muset e brovade (cotechino served with sour
turnip marinated in marc), gnocchi alla
carnica or apple gnocchi...
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Ye olde
shopping
The people from Carnia hold an ancient wisdom in their hands,
expressed in handicrafts made in wood, ceramic, iron and stone.
It is thread through the delicate weaving of fabrics and also pampers
your feet in the typical velvet scarpetz.
T
he people from Carnia have not
only managed to preserve the
beauty of its nature and reap
the best fruits of its land.
They have also used their hands to
shape materials into expressive
handicrafts. The best places for
discovering and seeing this creativity
express itself is in the craftsmen’s
workshops. Here the main
materials used are wood, ceramic,
iron, marble and stone.
Weaving is another of their skills.
Woodworking is undoubtedly the
most widespread craft. Sutrio,
one of the most charming
villages in Carnia, is known as
the village of the marangons,
local carpenters and wood
sculptors. Theirs is an ancient art
handed down from generation to
generation, over the centuries; still
today you can purchase furniture
carved in ancient decorative styles,
wooden homeware, statues and basreliefs.
But it is surprising to learn that Carnia
also boasts an ancient skill in weaving.
Heirs of a tradition whose roots date
back to the eighteenth century, the
workshops thread valuable original
patterns into their fabrics and weave
soft rugs and items of clothing.
Potters are busy workers too, and you
may well come across workshops,
perhaps squeezed in between the arches
of the typical Carnic edifices, where you
can admire their handicrafts to the
background hum of the potter’s wheel.
The characteristic velvet footwear
decorated in floral embroidery called
scarpetz are also handmade in Carnia.
With these on your feet, you can let
your mind wander through the magic
atmospheres of these lands, as you look
forward to visiting them once again.
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From the Parco delle Colline
Carniche, with its gentle trails
to follow on foot, horseback
or on a mountain bike, to the
Parco Naturale delle Dolomiti
Friulane, where trekking and
mountaineering are superb
between the majestic heights.
Many tiny treasures are
hidden amid the mountains,
waterfalls and canyons, right
down as far as the lake on
Volaia...
Places
and delig hts of nature
T
he Parco Intercomunale delle Colline Carniche (park of the carnic hills) owes its name
to the gentle sloping heights interweaving a charming sunlit hilly backdrop covered
in meadows and woodlands. It is the ideal place for cultural and nature excursions
for all ages. Some of its trails may be followed on a mountain bike or on horseback,
starting out from the stables situated inside the Pineta di Villa Santina. The Parco Naturale
delle Dolomiti Friulane is a protected area featuring Dolomitic peaks and splendid natural
backdrops. A genuine paradise for excursions, trekking and mountaineering. Indeed Carnia
offers dozens of sites of remarkable environmental and natural value: lakes, waterfalls,
canyons: little known but enchanting and spectacular treasures hidden among the
mountains. There are exciting excursions in the Canyon del Torrente Vinadia above Villa
Santina and in the Forra de Las Callas: here the Chiarsò stream flows down to an
impenetrable gorge, which you can glimpse from a path dug into the overhanging rock.
The Lake and Oasis of Bordaglia, lying in
the meadows at the foot of Monte Volaia,
are two of the most spectacular places
in Friuli Venezia Giulia, inhabited by
chamois, roe deer, marmots and
a rich avifauna.
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C
arnia pulsates with a world of folklore
customs and usages offering images,
sounds and fragrances which become
engraved in your memory. Like, for example,
the ancestral agricultural rituals tied to the
seasons, celebrated many times a year in
traditional festivals and sagras. Then there
are the rituals for the Epiphany, for Carnival
and for the harvest. If you stroll through the
Carnia villages at Christmas time, watch out
for las cidulas, blazing wooden discs that
village youngsters launch into the dark
night with messages of goodwill.
In Sauris, legendary figures
accompany the oldest carnival
in the Alps. There are two main characters
featured in the event: the Kheirar, king of
the masks whose duty it is to lead the
festival and the Rolar, who announces the
beginning of the masquerade. There are also
a host of legends passed down from one
generation to the next, folk tales where fact
and fiction, common sense and superstition
merge together.
As you walk through the woods, the silence
might be broken by rustling or whispering:
so take a quick look around - you may be
lucky enough to catch sight of the Sbilfs,
comical, spiteful elfins inhabiting the
Carnia forests.
Ancestral agricultural rituals tied to the flow of the
seasons and to daily life in this magical mountain
microcosm have nurtured folklore customs which are
still very much alive today, particularly at Epiphany,
Carnival time and harvest time. With blazing discs
thrown from the hillsides and elfins in the woods.
Once upon a time…
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Clocks borne of an eighteenth century tradition, fifteenthcentury
“blacksmiths”, mills still working as they did in the
seventeenth century. An ancient world, relived in the Carnic
museums, touches modern-day society with its wisdom,
filling the air with melodious notes of fortepianos and
harpsichords and warming kitchens with the fogolâr.
Traces of culture
R
ediscover the ancient traditions and
understand the real essence of the
Carnic culture, by visiting the large
number of museums scattered throughout
the area. The most important of these is
undoubtedly the Museo delle arti e tradizioni
popolari Michele Gortani in Tolmezzo.
This museum of folk arts and traditions has
faithfully reproduced a typical Carnic
house; with its Friulian kitchen and
characteristic fogolâr, it is a symbol of this
land, whose image it can evoke worldwide.
Stop off in Illegio, at the Mulin dal Flec, to
see how grain was once milled.
Or visit the Farie di Checo in Cercivento, a
fifteenth-century factory which depicts the
typical blacksmith’s workshop and shows
the whole iron working process. At the
Mozartina, in Paularo, visitors are
completely enveloped in music in this
‘live’ museum, with the notes of
fortepianos, harpsichords and violins
belonging to a very rich private collection
of ancient musical instruments. The Museo
dell’Orologeria pesarina is a most unusual
clockmaking museum situated in Pesariis,
one of the most characteristic villages in
Carnia, brought to fame by its unusual
craftsmen’s trade dating back to the
eighteenth century: the production
of clocks, still sold all over Europe.
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Nature and... wellbeing
In the snowy winter and the bright green summer, outdoor
activities are the ideal way for living in harmony in such
an expressive natural setting. Travel on foot, skis,
horseback or on a bicycle, then treat yourself to
wonderful breaks in bivouacs, refuges and malghe,
before immerging yourself in the regenerating Terme
di Arta spa.
T
here are two colours for sports in
Carnia: white and green, colours
which flow one into the other with
the changing seasons. White prevails on ski
slopes and the mountains in winter while
green takes over in spring and summer,
with countless shades colouring the
meadows and trees.
Practising sports in Carnia means living
in harmony with nature. Any outdoor sport
is in close contact with the unspoilt
environment, as are outdoor leisure
activities. Bivouacs, refuges and malghe
are scattered along hundreds of paths to
welcome and provide refreshments for
ramblers. Carnia offers exciting horseback
rides too, along the trails and in the
trenches of the front line of the Great War
or along the Via delle Malghe, an itinerary
linking the mountain dairies, where you
can discover the flavours of these lands.
And at the end of a tiring day outdoors,
there is nothing better than treating
yourself to a few hours in the Terme di
Arta spa, the ideal place for spending a
regenerating wellbeing holiday for getting
your body back into shape or simply for
relaxing in an unspoilt natural environment.
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AUSTRIA
CARNIA
TARVISIO
SLOVENIA
PORDENONE
UDINE
GORIZIA
TRIESTE
Easy to reach, hard to forget
TURISMO FRIULI VENEZIA GIULIA
Piazza Manin, 10 loc. Passariano
33033 Codroipo (Ud) - Italy
tel. +39 0432 815111
fax +39 0432 815199
info@turismo.fvg.it
TEL. 0039 0432 734100
DSF design / photo: Da Pozzo, Museo delle Arti Popolari Michele Gortani / printed by: Graphart
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