In October 2018, the Vaia storm struck the alpine forests of Friuli-Venezia Giulia in northeast Italy for hours. Winds that blew at the speed of a hurricane and in a few days, millions of trees were lost. Locals were faced with a challenge: what to do with the fallen trees so as not to waste them?
Among the several projects, that of chef Stefano Basello concerned using spruce tree bark to produce flour, inspired by a historic anti-hunger recipe from the last century. He realized this brilliant and successful idea at his restaurant Il Fogolar in Udine. Basello first serves his pancor, a fragrant bread mixed with bark flour to spread with salted butter from Carnia, that's the crossroads of the Veneto and Austria, and varhackara, a pesto made from lard and speck scraps, smoked bacon and aromas made in Timau, a small mountain community of German dialect.
Another example of a regional initiative is the construction from scratch of Portopiccolo, a village built according to innovative architectural and energy criteria in a limestone quarry that had been abandoned for decades. Like Portofino in Liguria and Porto Cervo in Sardinia, Portopiccolo aspires to be the chic destination of the Adriatic on a stretch of coast that, in terms of beauty, has nothing to envy other exotic seas. It overlooks the Gulf of Trieste with yachts moored in the marina, a luxury hotel, houses, boutiques, and restaurants, a glass-enclosed spa, and beach club. The wonderful panorama captures Duino Castle to the west, Miramare Castle to the east, and the coast of Croatia beyond.
Friulians are used to solving urgent problems, whether they're concerning recycling, ecology, or quality of life. Take for example the Illy family, coffee industrialists who have always been committed to ethical production. The company and the Ernesto Illy Foundation were among the first supporters of the United Nations World Happiness Report, which since 2012 has evaluated places and their respective economies based on the degree of individual and collective happiness of those who live there, considering the internal product gross not only personal wealth but the capacity for inclusion and redistribution.
A borderland and crossroads of cultures, Friuli-Venezia Giulia is never at risk of over-tourism. In this area too, it has chosen sustainability, revealing its beauties little by little over a slow exploration. In an hour you can go from idleness on the beaches to trekking in the Alps and the Dolomites, crossing lagoons, natural oases, cliffs, hills, millenary forests, the Karst plateau, and the Collio vineyards.
The equally rich variety of products corresponds to the landscape variety, which encompasses too many to list. Instead, plan a trip on the road following one or more itineraries of the Strada del Vino e dei Sapori guide published by PromoTurismoFVG. In addition to the driving routes, it also features almost 400 addresses for delicious and interesting stops among restaurants, distilleries, farmhouses, wine bars, and artisans. Because let's face it, it's the ideal holiday for these times of restrictions and social distancing.