Sauris, where water meets a sense of timelessness

Heading northwards, into the heart of Carnia, you reach Sauris (Zahre in the local dialect). This village, the highest municipality in the region, is a veritable linguistic and cultural enclave of German-speaking origin, where the ancient wooden houses, built using the blockbau technique (an ancient timber-framing technique characterised by logs or beams laid horizontally and interlocked at the corners without the use of nails) and the tradition of preserving food by lightly smoking it with beech wood. From Sauris di Sopra, a long-distance route (10.1 kilometres, taking around 4 hours to walk) leads up towards the Sella di Festons. Here, on a vast high-altitude plateau amongst still-active mountain dairies and flower-filled pastures, you’ll come across small glacial lakes that reflect the peaks of the Pesarine Dolomites. It is a mountain pasture trail, where the silence is broken only by the cows’ bells and where you can stop at the dairy huts to sample local cheeses and the famous Sauris IGP ham.