Asian celebrities visit Udine for East Asian Film Festival, and are knocked out by the Italian city’s food, wine and architecture
- The Far Eastern Film Festival is held in Udine, an hour’s drive from Venice, and Asian celebrities attending the festival fell in love with the city
- With a mixture of Venetian and Habsburg architecture, food and wine to die for, and without Venice’s crowds, it is a must-see
Most tourists flying in to Venice Marco Polo Airport head straight for the canals and gondolas of one of the world’s most popular destinations. But for those looking to leave the crowds behind, just an hour’s drive in the other direction lies Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of the most unspoiled, refreshing and surprising parts of Italy.
This semi-autonomous region has its own language, distinctive cuisine, dramatic castles and scenic hills covered with vineyards. Cosmopolitan Friuli is more Mitteleuropa than Italy, as it borders Slovenia and Austria, stretching from the majestic port of Trieste, on the Adriatic, up to the snowcapped mountains of the Alps.
Right in the middle is the ancient city of Udine, a seductive, eclectic mix of Venetian gothic palaces and decorative Habsburg literary cafes, frescoed medieval churches and modern art museums, rustic wood-beamed osterie (restaurants serving cheap local fare) and elegant fine-dining establishments. With barely a tourist in sight, this is the perfect place for a first taste of what Friuli has to offer.
My tour of Udine begins in its historical heart, the Piazza della Libertà, which dates back to the early 1400s, when the city was conquered and became part of the Republic of Venice, a state of affairs that endured for almost four centuries. Atop a tall column, the noble Lion of Venice looks down on those strolling in the piazza, much like Nelson in London’s Trafalgar Square, while the centrepiece Torre dell’Orologio, lined by shady porticos, is almost a carbon copy of the clock tower in Venice’s Piazza San Marco.
The Venetians built a massive castle just above Udine’s piazza and a bubbling Renaissance fountain, and this classical composition is completed by the Loggia del Lionello, a pastel pink marble palazzo that is the home of the town hall. But this is only part of Udine’s diverse cultural influences, because after Napoleon swept the Venetians aside, Friuli officially became Habsburg, part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until the end of World War I.
To get a feeling for this, I wander over to the edge of the piazza and grab a table at Caffè Contarena, a Viennese-style salon decorated in classic Jugendstil (art nouveau), with ornate art deco mosaics and chandeliers, serving irresistible hot chocolate and delicious sachertorte, wicked negroni cocktails and mellow oak-aged grappa made by the women distillers of the local Nonino family.
