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The territory ranges from the
pleasant plains at the foot of the
mountains in the Aviano area
(where the silent jewel of Castel
d'Aviano stands out) to the doublefaced
high mountains, showing the
modern tourist
mountain resorts on the one hand
(of which Piancavallo, with its
ski slopes, cross-country
trails and aspirations to
become a little
Cervinia, is the
symbol), and the rough
mountains on the other
hand, made of shadows,
sharp rock and small
lakes, offering their
truest face to those who
dare venture in the
Valcellina following the old
road dropping sheer to the stream
ravine: a spectacular rift creating the natural
reserve of -Forra del Cellina- before widening,
south of Montereale, in the large pebbly riverbank
splitting the plain in two. These mountains offer
several naturalistic attractions (all together
making up the Regional Natural Park of the Friuli
Dolomites- -Parco naturale regionale delle
dolomiti friulane-- including the Campanile of
Val Montanaia: 2173 soaring metres to the
mountaineers' delight), but the doubts on the
possible future developments of the area, torn
between tourism and emigration, have not been
solved yet. So much so that the ebullient poet
Federico Tavan, a native to Andreis, in his most
recent play grotesquely fancies that
the only hope for the few
souls who have remained
in the area is joining the
Republic of Cuba. This is a
land of extreme contrasts, in
which the romantic lake of
Barcis coexists with the
terrible scar of Vajont, as the
silence of the countryside
coexists with the metal sound of
jet planes in the USAF base of
Aviano. This part of
Pordenone province has
also positively learned
from its history, and
it couldn't have been
otherwise, since the
death sentence, in the
1600s, of Menocchio, a heretic miller of
the area, and the study carried out on
the episode by historian Carlo Ginzburg, from
which a cultural circle developed that has
soon become irreplaceable.
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