Archive for 'Northeast Italy'

The Dolomiti Bellunesi National Park was created in 1990, but steps towards its creation actually began all the way back in the 1960s. Its holdings are impressive with over 32,000 hectares being protected by the National Park.

The park takes in territories from fifteen different municipalities, in the Val Belluna, north of the centre of the Piave Valley.

It is the most visited national park in all of Italy and with good reason.

The Brenta Dolomites, or “Dolomiti di Brenta”, is the part of the Dolomite range which lies to the westernmost extremity of the region. The range is about 40km in length as it runs from north to south and about 12 km wide east to west. It is rather different from the more eastern Dolomite groups, made up of slender lines and a greater plasticity of forms. However, all of the Dolomite range is particularly stunning, with deep valleys, extremely high peaks, dramatically craggy rock formations and pretty towns and huts perched at random in a very picturesque fashion. This is surely why it became a UNESCO Heritage Site in 2009.

One of Italy's prettiest museums has to be Museo Revoltella in Trieste. The museum occupies the former home of Baron Revoltella and has since spilled out into two neighbouring buildings as the collections have grown over the years. Founded in 1872, it gathers the works of 19th and 20th century artists from the area and presents them alongside some of the original décor of the building including chandeliers, ornate gilded plasterwork and flamboyant silk wallpaper. The museum is also home to a lovely rooftop café and a great bookshop. Find a holiday rental in Friuli Venezia Giulia and pay a visit to the city, in order to see this amazing museum.

In 2005, a very unusual discovery was made on the Venetian island of Lazzaretto Nuovo. Among other bodies discovered in the mass plague graves of the island was a woman's skull with a brick jammed into her mouth – a vampire. Thus, Lazzaretto Nuovo became the vampire island of Venice and news outlets from around the world reported on the discovery of the strange corpse. Of course, you might wonder why a brick in her mouth didn't merely suggest an accident or prank but the act of putting a brick in the mouth of a corpse had a very distinct reasoning behind it.

Frico is a typical dish of Friuli and is similar to another popular Alpine dish called Rosti. Both consist of thin pieces of fried potato and cheese, creating something akin to cheese “crisps”. As the area was rather impoverished in the past, this dish was a way of using and recycling bread crusts so as not to waste any food at all. It is made using high-fat hard cheeses, preferably and traditionally either Montasio or Asiago. Frico is made in thin wisps or in loaf-like or pancake-like shapes that are fried in a pan and which can then be sliced. It is not usually eaten on its own or in its own right and is generally used as a garnish in soups or stews.

This tasty dish is very quick and easy to make and is an economic way to use food. If you want to try the authentic thing, find a holiday rental in Friuli and use the recipe below to taste it first!