TWO DAYS IN UDINE

My sister D and I arrive in Udine in the late afternoon of the election Sunday in September. The capital city of the Italian region of Friuli is situated halfway between the Adriatic Sea and the Alps, but its climate appears to have opted for the mountainous version, rather than the Mediterranean.
Our hotel Quo Vadis, in Piazzale Gio Batta Cella, is a cheap yet perfectly satisfying accommodation with breakfast and within walking distance of the bus and train stations and the city centre. We drop our bags and stroll down slippery cobbled streets and browse through luxurious shops. There are no cheap shops in the centre of Udine. There are no unkept façades or derelict buildings. There is no poverty in this city. Or – they are all well hidden away from the accidental visitors.
On the tourist map of the region, Udine has always lost out to its more famous neighbours – Venice, Padova, Trieste. The two of us – one with an address just south of Rome and other with regular transits through the nearby airport – are also visiting it for the first time. According to the legend, when Attila the Hun decided to conquer the Roman city of Aquileia, he ordered his soldiers to build a hill tall enough to supervise the battlefield. They carried mud in their helmets, and it is around the hilltop they erected that the city of Udine was born. The origin of the name Udine is unclear, but it most probably predates Roman times, and it has a connection with the Indo-European root “udder” with its figurative meaning of – of course – ‘hill’.
Our walk takes us to the Piazza Giacomo Matteotti, adorned with small bars, cafés and restaurants and with the Colonna della Vergine as its central point. In Assaje, a busy and highly recommended Sicilian style pizzeria, we order a pizza bianca (no tomato) with San Daniele prosciutto and caciocavallo cheese. But that’s only the main. For starters we have arancini and for dessert, pistachio tiramisu. The famous Italian pudding has a green twist and a rather theatrical appearance. It is served in a moka pot with smoke hissing through the coffee valve. Oh my – it is absolutely delicious. All three courses are. The beers too.



Next morning, we wake up to the news that Giorgia Meloni has won the elections. She has far-right beliefs, she is anti-immigration and – apparently – would like Istria to be “returned” to Italy. A rather frightening political CV. Nevertheless, we have seen no signs of elections in Udine; no posters with motivational slogans, grand promises, or grinning politicians.
After the breakfast in the hotel – a buffet of savoury and sweet options and a coffee machine that makes a rather good espresso – we step into a cold and grey morning with a high chance of rain. The Porta Aquileia, constructed in the 14th century, was one of the six gates of the medieval city walls. From here we walk up the Viale Ungheria all the way to Museo Diocesano e Gallerie del Tiepolo in the Palazzo Patriarcale or Arcivescovile. This is one of the most famous buildings in Udine. The central part was built during 16th century by the patriarchs of Aquileia. The Archbishop Dionisio Delfino employed Giambattista Tiepolo, the greatest Italian rococo painter, to decorate walls with episodes from lives of Abraham and his descendants from the Book of Genesis. Apparently, the motivation was so that the people waiting to see the archbishop could enjoy the art. The final product is the most mesmerising waiting room I have ever seen. The palazzo is also the home to an impressive library – the first library in Udine that was open to the public – and to the exhibition of sacred wooden objects from Romanesque style to Baroque and beyond.



From here we walk past the Cenotaph to Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof, the creator of Esperanto, the idealistic Lingvo universala, to the Church of Santa Maria al Castello, the Castle of Udine and the photogenic arches of the Piazzale della patria del Friuli. The top of the ancient hill of Attila is now the large Piazzale del Castello, a viewpoint of the town and its mountainous backdrop.
We descend to the ground level via the Bollani Arch, designed by Andrea Palladio, and find ourselves in the most fascinating spot of the city – the majestic Piazza della Libertà. This square boasts the most famous monuments in Udine; the Loggia del Lionello (the town hall) in Venetian Gothic style, the Torre dell’Orologio (inspired by the one at Piazza San Marco in Venice) and the Loggia di San Giovanni, a Renaissance style structure. The columns bear the Venetian Lion and the Statue of Justice, as well as the statues of Hercules and Cacus and the Statue of Peace. The sun is now out in full force, but the city is nearly deserted. Apart from a group of German-speaking tourists we met in the Tiepolo rooms, everyone else appears to be an Udinese getting on with their own business – work, study, or sipping a coffee while reading a newspaper. And we decide to do just that.



In the Hausbrandt Café on the corner of Piazza Giacomo Matteotti and Via dell’Erbe we stop for a cappuccino, a double espresso, and pistachio biscuits. Over delicious drinks, D and I contemplate our history of coffee drinking. Our adopted uncle Sime, who regularly went to Trieste, would bring back packages of Amigos or Hausbrandt. For novice coffee drinkers, Amigos was sweeter and easier to digest, but Hausbrandt grew on us as we grew older and dropped sugar (and myself also milk). I buy myself a few souvenirs: a Hausbrandt espresso cup with saucer, a decorative tin, and a vacuum package of coffee. As I am later to discover while going through security at the airport, nostalgia is regularly stronger than logic or practicality (my bag had to be opened, and the contents of the tin carefully inspected).



After more walking and a quick lunch of piadinas with cooked ham, cheese and rucola, we jump on Bus No 9 and go to the Città Fiera shopping centre. Here we find some cheaper clothing and footwear shops, but the whole place is nearly deserted; either because Monday afternoon is not prime shopping time or because the Udinesi prefer the negozi costosi in the centre. In the Italian budget shop OVS, I buy two pairs of wide black joggers for my (in a few months) teenage daughter and we run to catch the bus as a thick and heavy rain descends.
Before dinner we go for a religious tour and there is certainly no shortage of churches in Udine. Our hotel shares wall with the Chiesa della Pietà. This rather small sacral object resembles a chapel rather than a church and has an interesting portale d’ingresso consisting of four columns and two semicolumns. A few minutes later we reach the Chiesa di San Giorgio, typical of the churches of this area, as well as the churches in Istria where we went to service and communion during our childhood. The Chiesa di San Francesco is one of the oldest churches in the city and these days is used as an exhibition hall. We have missed the exhibition of Banksy & Friends by a few days. I quite like the idea of Banksy’s work in a religious object. A rather impressive paradox of concepts.
The main church in the capital of Friuli, the Duomo di Udine (Udine Cathedral) has a Romanesque-Gothic exterior and a Baroque interior. Its construction started in the early 13th century, but it was rebuilt and transformed at various stages in history and to me it looks like a regular Catholic church; with its central nave, two aisles and four side chapels.



The grey and cold evening calls for a continental choice of food, rather than Mediterranean. Established in 1643, Osteria da Artico is the oldest osteria in town, serving typical Friulian dishes. We start our dinner with a large platter of local cheeses, prosciuttos, salami, and pancetta, called “Viaggio per il Friuli” with a selection of home-made breads. For main I order “Toc’ di vora con polenta”, two balls of polenta with pork sausages and a rib in a tasty white sauce. D opts for tagliatelle with ragù. To end our dinner on a sweet note, we order pistachio pancakes with pistachio present both in the mixture and the rich filling. Wonderfully flavoursome.



And we are done for the day and desperate for our bed.
Our sleep is interrupted by a nasty storm that lasts most of the night with thick rain tailing well into the following day. I see D off at Udine bus station. Her flight leaves at midday and mine five hours later.
The pavements are covered in dirty puddles and dead leaves and the rain is not showing any signs of ceasing. I buy a green €5 umbrella in the shop by the station and head to Casa Cavazzini, museo d’arte moderna e contemporanea. The sixteenth century mansion is today an impressive art centre with exhibitions on three floors: from the masterpieces of well-known world artists (De Chirico, Willem De Kooning), works of the Udinese brothers Dino, Mirko and Afro Basaldella, paintings depicting local life (grazing sheep or men playing the local card game briscola, also popular in Istria) to the temporary exhibition on the top floor. The exhibition Contrappunto 02 explores present-day artists’ inspiration by and interpretation of other artists’ masterpieces. Artist Manuela Sedmach dedicates her creation to Ellsworth Kelly and Manuela Toselli to Bernhard Fiedler. The concept and display are very modern and would perfectly fit in London’s Tate Modern or New York’s Guggenheim.



Here I meet Maurizio. He is a pensioner who spends rainy days in museums. We talk about the fascinating creativity of the ten artists in the Contrappunto 02 exhibition. I ask him about Galleria Tina Modotti (ex Mercato del pesce). Tina Modotti is the most famous women born in Udine. She was a model, a photographer and political activist. Yet, apart from the name of gallery there is not much homage to her remarkable life in her native city. Maurizio will show me how to get there as he needs to pop to a farmacia to get his heart medicine. Unfortunately, the Galleria is closed and the ladies in the gift shop opposite are not sure why. They give me a map of the city and suggest visiting the Museo Etnografico… I smile and thank them but when I find myself in front of the Hausbrandt café, I opt for a double espresso and pistachio biscuit instead. Museo Etnografico can wait for another time…



As I walk past Trattoria Al Pappagallo in Cella (“Parrot in a cell”) on the way to retrieve my suitcase from the hotel, I feel hungry and decide to stop for lunch. The other night, D and I, relying on our associative memory, renamed it to Canarino in gabbia (“Canary in a cage”) and could not stop laughing when we realised how wrong we got it. I sit in the corner and order penne with ragù. This is a workers’ canteen with beer slogans scribbled all over the walls, extremely large portions and the waitress and I being the only women. A group of men at the next table are discussing taxes – one of them seems to be the owner of this place – and price rises. Their conversation is passionate and animated, and I couldn’t just barge in and ask what they thought of the election results…
Maybe I should have, but I had a plane to catch.