Cosa Fare | natura ed enogastronomia

San Canzian d’Isonzo stands on the left bank of the River Isonzo, just a few kilometres from the Mouth of the Isonzo-Cona Island Nature Reserve. The area enjoys a natural environment of extremely high quality and also includes an exceptional archaeological heritage, as well as producing outstanding wines and hosting numerous family-run farms, many of which providing organic products. The area is criss-crossed by cycleways and footpaths, along which the visitor can admire certain unusual features, such as the wellhead at San Canzian mill race, an unmistakable landmark running through the town. The vegetation is very varied, common tree species being ash, hornbeam, hop-hornbeam, hazel, poplar, elm, alder, Robinia and a vast range of shrubs offering shelter for roe deer, boar, squirrels and birds of all kinds.

The Friuli - Venezia Giulia florist school, Gentium Academia Florum Artis, in via Palazzato, in Isola Morosini, is well worth a visit. The school organises flower arranging workshops and courses in wild herb identification for culinary purposes. Terranova is home to one of the feathers in the region’s cap: Damiano Baradel’s wild and exotic animal refuge.

The area offers a large number of places where local delicacies and wines can be sampled: Feudi di Romans, owned by the Lorenzon family in Pieris, produces fine DOC Friuli Isonzo wines; Eleonora Cosolo’s Le Officinali sells organically-grown produce and its own herbal products; the farms in Begliano offer fruit and vegetables from their orchards and fields (Azienda Maurizio Zorzet - Azienda Agricola Zorzet Mersia), while the hives in the Mouth of the Isonzo Nature Reserve provide mouthwatering honey (Mieli Zorzet). There are also a large number of restaurants that turn these ingredients into wonderful local dishes, including Bruno Tirel’s Ostaria da Bepi Meo, Ristorante Arcimboldo and Zorzet Mersia’s Il Principato de Bean.

Casa delle Associazioni, in Pieris, houses Mario Cosolo’s permanent exhibition entitled Un dolce da re, il Tìrime su - Coppa Vetturino. It covers the true story of the most famous dessert in the world, the Tiramisu, which was invented by the pastry chef on board the royal yacht Savoia for King Victor Emanuel in 1932, a stage of the Territories Ecomuseum. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4ZpUbByPjE).