and discover.
IN THE SURROUNDINGS OF CODROIPO - BETWEEN VILLAS, CASTLES AND HISTORIC HOUSES
The area around the Hotel Restaurant Ai Gelsi is surrounded by important and authoritative signs of the past that come alive through historical re-enactments and cultural and recreational events: through these lands Romans, Lombards, Venetians, Habsburg have passed. To devote your free time to excursions and visits throughout the Friulian territory, Ai Gelsi is in a strategic position: we are in fact at the centre of Friuli Venezia Giulia.

The city of Codroipo, inhabited since Roman times, owes its name to the Latin word Quadrivium. There are numerous archaeological findings, partly exposed in the Municipal Museum.

It is a land of resurgences, a natural phenomenon visible in the Resurgence Park, just a few minutes from the hotel Ai Gelsi, to discover on foot or by bicycle, where in some places you really feel like walking on water that resurfaces after having travelled underground.

Right on the edge of the park, that's the old mills, like that of Bosa and the fifteenth century mill of Bert, still working and open.

In San Martino you can find the museum of vintage carriages with almost 50 carriages perfectly working.

5 minutes from the Hotel Ai Gelsi there is the splendid Villa Manin, which was the residence of the Doge of Venice: beauty, history, architectural perfection are welded in this noble villa built in the 600th, embellished with a park with trees from all over the world. The Villa is also a venue for major events and concerts, art exhibitions of a high standard in the elegant frescoed halls. One of the rooms houses the original furniture of the bedroom of Napoleon: the leader signed here the Treaty of Campoformido in 1797, which marked the end of the Venetian Republic.

Not only the castles perched on white rocks overlooking the sea, in the coast of Trieste, like those of Miramare and Duino, or the resurgence castles of Strassoldo, in the Bassa Friulana (Lower Friuli plain), but also the many fortifications of Friuli Collinare (Hills of Friuli): military buildings that protect enchanted villages and timeless corners. And, from there, the view extends over endless views.

As in the castle of Colloredo di Monte Albano, where the writer Ippolito Nievo wrote Confessioni di un italiano  ("Confessions of an Italian"), or in Villalta di Fagagna, where there is one of the most well-preserved castles in the region, or in those of Ragogna and Rive d’Arcano, which are located in isolated and mysterious places, where nature gives strong suggestions. And yet in Cassacco, Susans di Majano and Fontanabona di Pagnacco, where the view embraces soft rolling hills.

In Osoppo, then, there is a fortress which is National Monument since 1923, thanks to the wealth of relics of centuries and centuries of history. To connect all the castles of the Friuli Collinare (Hills of Friuli) in a pleasant tourist route is La Strada dei Castelli e del Prosciutto (“The Road of Castles and Ham”).


For information and routes:
Tourism Agency FVG Friuli Venezia Giulia www.turismofvg.it
Community Friuli Collinare www.tourismfriulicollinare.it

Or ask information and directions for routes to the staff of our Reception Ai Gelsi.