Udine sits at the centre of a small but rewarding region. Forty minutes south brings you to the Adriatic and the lagoons of Marano and Grado; an hour east takes you to Trieste; twenty minutes east is Cividale del Friuli, a Lombard town set into a gorge of the Natisone river, with a 8th-century Tempietto Longobardo that is a UNESCO site. San Daniele, 30 km north-west, is the home of San Daniele prosciutto and hosts the Aria di Festa ham festival each June. The hills above Cividale are the heart of the Collio and Colli Orientali wine regions — book a tasting at one of the dozens of small wineries.
