Moggio Udinese and the Val Aupa: Dolomites Without the Crowds

When people think of the Dolomites, the mind runs to Cortina, the Sassolungo, the Tre Cime di Lavaredo and the interminable queues of cars on mountain pass roads. But there is another face to the Friulian mountains — equally spectacular and almost completely unknown: the Val Aupa, which opens behind Moggio Udinese, an ancient borgo perched on a rocky spur in the narrow gorge of the Val del Fella.

Moggio Udinese is a passing point for travellers on the state road toward Austria, but almost no one stops. That is a pity, because the borgo has a discreet charm that merits at least a pause. The Abbazia di San Gallo, founded in the eleventh century by Benedictines, dominates the village from a rocky bluff with its severe facade and Renaissance cloister. Inside, fifteenth-century frescoes narrate the lives of saints and martyrs with a chromatic vitality that surprises in such a remote place. The borgo below preserves stone houses with sculpted doorways and internal courtyards where in summer the maize cobs are hung to dry for polenta.

But it is the Val Aupa, opening to the north of Moggio, that represents the true hidden treasure. This glacial valley some fifteen kilometres long penetrates the heart of the western Julian Alps with a depth and isolation that leaves you breathless. The paved road ends after a few kilometres at Dordolla, a ghost borgo where stone houses are slowly returning to nature. From here onwards you proceed on foot, along CAI-marked trails that lead to mountain dairies, refuges and summits exceeding two thousand metres.

The finest trail in the Val Aupa is the one leading to Rifugio Grauzaria (1,250 m), a CAI refuge managed by the Moggio section, offering dormitory beds and home-cooked food where the polenta is stirred in a copper cauldron and the cheese comes from the nearby dairy. From the refuge you can climb Monte Grauzaria (1,807 m), a summit offering a 360-degree panorama of the Carnic Alps, the Julian Alps, and on clear days the Friulian plain all the way to the sea. The ascent takes about three hours from the refuge and is suited to hikers with some experience.

For the more adventurous, the Val Aupa also offers the trail to the Forra del Vinadia — a gorge carved by water through limestone that creates a miniature American canyon environment. The trail is equipped with fixed ropes and metal ladders on some exposed sections, and takes about four hours return. It is not suited to those with vertigo, but the reward is a wild environment where the only sound is water plunging between rock walls.

Down in the valley, Moggio Udinese offers a convenient base for exploring the area. Albergo Malattia — the unfortunate name traces back to a local family surname — is a historic inn serving authentic Carnic cooking: cjarsons filled with herbs and ricotta, soft frico with yellow polenta, venison in salmi with white polenta. Prices are those of the Friulian mountains — a third of Cortina's for quality at least comparable.

For those preferring a less demanding excursion, the nature trail following the Aupa stream from Moggio to Dordolla is a flat hour's walk through beech and hornbeam forest, with picnic areas along the stream. In autumn the foliage is spectacular: beeches turn red and gold while larches shift to bright yellow, creating a mosaic of colour that rivals any New England forest.

Moggio Udinese is reached from Udine in about forty minutes along the Canal del Ferro state road, or from the A23 motorway (Udine-Tarvisio) with the Moggio-Resiutta exit. The location is strategic: from here you can easily reach the Val Resia — where a uniquely archaic Slavic language is spoken — and Tarvisio with the Bosco di Fusine, whose emerald lakes are among the most photographed in Friuli.

The Val Aupa has none of the Dolomites' fame, no crowded refuges, no ski lifts. It has majestic mountains, silent trails, a nature recovering its spaces with centuries of patience. For those seeking the Alps as they were fifty years ago — wild, authentic, free — this is the right place.

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