TUESDAY (Oct 12th) Friuili

(I have posted some pictures from the trip - see below)

We are in Udine staying with our longtime friends Claudia and Harley. Udine is situated in the heart of the Friuli region, about an hour and a half northeast of Venice, close to Slovenia. A lovely city of about 100,000 people, it has all the trappings of what makes Italy different – a sense of style… Italians really know how to produce beautiful things – clothes, shoes, buildings, objets d’art, espresso makers…you name it – Italians make it look better.

Italians also dress better than anyone else in the world….Les refers to them as ”fashionistas”…. A case in point: this morning we went for a stroll through town, window shopping at all the fancy clothing stores. Les was wearing this bright-colored, flowery, spring-like skirt with a green top….The looks she got! It was clear she was wearing the wrong outfit for the time of year. The stares of disbelief were sufficient to cause her to change outfits before our afternoon adventures….I, on the other hand, am always appropriately dressed because I don’t care….

One final word on fashion – Purple… Definitely the new “in”color. You heard it here first…

The Friuli region remains an unknown area for Americans. Lovely, undiscovered small towns, great food and white wines, beautiful scenery and few tourists make it one of my favorite areas of Italy… Speaking of food today was another spectacular lunch – this time at Trattoria Blanch in the city of Mossa. A soup of pasta e fagioli, followed by a fresh porcini pasta (unbelievably good), then bacala e polenta with a side of contorni; a great house Friulano (used to be called Tokay), finishing with an espresso….near perfection. All for 25 Euros per person…. Another wasted day……Bello.