Sauris, Friuli's German island beneath a starlit sky

Sauris (Zahre, in its ancient Germanic tongue) is a linguistic and cultural island set among the mountains of Carnia, in the upper Lumiei valley, amid the Carnic Alps. It's one of those places geography has kept sheltered: for centuries it could be reached only on foot, and this isolation has preserved here a world that dissolved elsewhere. The municipality gathers into two main clusters, Sauris di Sotto and Sauris di Sopra, spread out at over twelve hundred metres of altitude among meadows, fir woods and timber houses blackened by time.

A linguistic island

Its origins lie in a migration of German-speaking settlers, probably from the valleys of East Tyrol, attested since the Middle Ages. Since then the community has safeguarded Saurano, an archaic Germanic dialect still spoken today alongside Friulian and Italian: hearing it in the village's conversations is the most immediate sign of a culture that endures. It's a fragile heritage, made of words, gestures and handed-down crafts, to be approached with the discretion of someone who knows they are a guest.

Flavours and landscapes

Sauris is famous for its ham, gently smoked with beech wood, which unites the Friulian tradition of salt with the Germanic tradition of smoke, and for a craft beer, Zahre, born in 1999 when no one was yet talking about craft brewing. Above the village opens the turquoise Lumiei lake, an artificial reservoir closed off by a great dam and surrounded by silent trails: a walking loop around its waters is worth more than any photograph.

Getting there

You reach it by car, climbing up from Ampezzo along a narrow mountain road that winds in hairpins through the rock: the journey itself is part of the experience, and it rewards slowness. The gentlest season is the shoulder one, late spring and early autumn, when the woods change colour, the hamlets stay empty and the village isn't overrun by anyone, not even in the warm months.

Sauris is far from everything, and that is exactly why it's worth it: a place to inhabit for a few days with a light step, listening to an ancient language and leaving it intact for those who come after.

Related guides: Unusual Friuli Venezia Giulia: hidden villages and little-known places · Off-season destinations in Italy: where to go away from the crowds (and when) · Where to go at Easter without the crowds: villages and weekends in Italy's lesser-known corners.

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