San Daniele and its Ham
The prosciutto and the Guarneriana library
On a hill in the morainic amphitheatre of the Tagliamento, north-west of Udine, San Daniele del Friuli is a small town known all over the world for its prosciutto, the Prosciutto di San Daniele DOP, one of the most famous Italian hams, sweet and delicate. Its quality depends on the particular microclimate of the area, where the cold, dry air coming down from the Alps meets the mild, humid breezes rising from the Adriatic, and on the traditional processing: the legs of pork, from pigs raised in a few regions of northern and central Italy, are salted only with sea salt, without any additives, pressed, which gives them their typical "guitar" shape, and aged for at least 13 months, keeping the "zampino", the trotter, a distinctive feature. In the town, many prosciuttifici offer guided tours and tastings, and in late June the festival "Aria di Festa" celebrates the ham with tastings throughout the town.
But San Daniele also has a precious cultural treasure: the Biblioteca Guarneriana, founded in 1466 by the humanist Guarnerio d'Artegna, who donated his collection of manuscripts, one of the oldest public libraries in Italy, which preserves precious illuminated codices, including a fourteenth-century manuscript of Dante's Inferno and a Byzantine Bible. In the church of Sant'Antonio Abate, the frescoes by Pellegrino da San Daniele, of the early sixteenth century, are so rich in colour that the church has been called the "Sistine Chapel of Friuli".
Tip: visit a prosciuttificio and taste the ham with Friulano wine; book a visit to the Guarneriana library.
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