This region is not to be confused with its neighbor, Veneto (home of Venice). Since it ranges from the mountains to the sea, it is often spoken in terms of Alta Friulana (higher Friuli) and Bassa Friulana (lower Friuli).
While Italian dialects consist of variations in pronunciation and accent, the people of Friuli speak friulan in addition to the national language. It is believed that friulan descended from Roman soldiers who settled in the isolated valleys among the Italian Alps. Indeed, this language is in some ways similar to Latin.
People of this region are known around Europe as hard workers with high values.
Because of its position as a corridor between the Alps and the Adriatic, this area has always been critical in commerce and travel between western and eastern Europe. It was officially "founded" in 183 B.C. with the Roman settlement of Aquileia. Here have passed the footprints of caesars, of Attila and of Napoleon. Marco Polo had to come here to obtain permission to visit Palestine and fulfill the request of the Khan. The soil of Friuli has soaked up the blood of millennia of wars, including the two great conflicts of the 20th Century. Part of this region was in the Austrian Empire, so some of the earliest shots of WWI were fired in Friuli. The monument at Redipuglia entombs 100,000 soldiers from this bloody war.
Friuli Venezia Giulia contains four provinces: Pordenone, Udine, Gorizia and Trieste.
