The areas of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one by one

The site's four broad areas are too coarse to choose from: "hills and plain" lumps Udine, Cormons and Sacile together. The reading areas sit one level below and start from an official boundary, the landscape units of the 2018 regional landscape plan (Piano paesaggistico regionale), with four declared adjustments:

• unit 6, the eastern one running from Gemona to the Collio, split into four (Gemona, Torre, Natisone, Collio and Isonzo), with a few neighbouring towns added;
• Udine and its ring separated from the upper plain;
• the coast split into three;
• Sappada, part of the Veneto until 2017 and so outside the plan, added to Carnia.

Each line below gives the median of the area's towns: OMI value of a flat in normal condition, minutes to a 24-hour A&E, minutes from central Udine, hours of direct sun on the shortest day. Drive times are without traffic, from each town hall.

• Lignano, Latisana and Marano · €1,200/m² · A&E 24 min · Udine 45 min · sun 8 h 39 min. Sandy beaches and holiday homes: in 2011 Lignano had 88% of its dwellings without anyone living there officially. Latisana, inland, has the hospital, but 76.2% of its buildings sit in a flood-risk area.
• Grado and Aquileia · €910/m² · A&E 25 min · Udine 42 min · sun 8 h 36 min. The island town of Grado and its lagoon, with Aquileia and Terzo behind: Grado's flats are valued at €2,200/m², Aquileia's at €910/m². From Grado the A&E is 38 min away.
• Monfalcone and the Bisiacaria · €825/m² · A&E 10 min · Udine 41 min · sun 8 h 33 min. The industrial side of the coast, with Trieste airport 9 min away; towns that have lost residents since 2001: 0 of 6. Monfalcone has the region's highest share of foreign residents (32.4%).

• Trieste and the Karst · €1,660/m² · A&E 13 min · Udine 51 min · sun 7 h 59 min. The city on the sea and the limestone plateau behind it, 1 h 15 from Ljubljana; 8 of its 10 towns have Slovenian-language schools. The priciest area, with a wind of its own: on Trieste's pier the bora gusts beyond 72 km/h on 49 days in an average year.

• The lower Friulian plain · €825/m² · A&E 18 min · Udine 35 min · sun 8 h 37 min. Fields and spring-fed streams between Udine and the lagoon, with hot summers (48 days above 30 °C). The thing to check is water: in 8 of 23 towns more than half the buildings stand in a flood-risk area (floods and landslides).
• Central Friuli and Palmanova · €870/m² · A&E 15 min · Udine 25 min · sun 8 h 37 min. Farming villages of the central plain, under half an hour from Udine, around Palmanova and its hospital with a 24-hour A&E.
• Udine and its ring · €910/m² · A&E 15 min · Udine 13 min · sun 8 h 36 min. The city and the villages growing around it: the centre is at most 17 min by car, a hub hospital a median 15 min, and only 2 of 11 towns have shrunk since 2001.
• Pordenone and the western plain · €905/m² · A&E 13 min · Udine 1 h 00 · sun 8 h 38 min. The growing plain: an average age of 46.9, the youngest of any area, and Venice airport 55 min away.
• The magredi of Spilimbergo and Maniago · €700/m² · A&E 14 min · Udine 55 min · sun 8 h 37 min. The magredi, a gravel plain at the foot of the mountains, with Spilimbergo hospital close by and a population that holds: only 2 of 9 towns are smaller than in 2001.

• The moraine hills and San Daniele · €825/m² · A&E 16 min · Udine 25 min · sun 8 h 34 min. Gentle hills between the Tagliamento and Udine, with near-full winter sun and Udine half an hour away; the 1976 earthquake reached intensity 9-10 (Mercalli scale) in Buja, Majano and Ragogna (earthquakes and seismic zones).
• Cividale and the valleys of the Natisone · €550/m² · A&E 38 min · Udine 36 min · sun 6 h 52 min. Cividale and the valleys running up to Slovenia: the lowest prices in the region and emptying villages, every one of them smaller than in 2001 (11 of 11; Drenchia -55%).
• Gorizia, the Collio and the Isonzo · €730/m² · A&E 15 min · Udine 39 min · sun 8 h 29 min. The Collio hills and the Isonzo plain around the border city of Gorizia: Ljubljana is 1 h 26 away, the Slovenian hospital at Šempeter 6 min from Gorizia; median full-fibre coverage 88.1%.
• Tarcento and the valleys of the Torre · €695/m² · A&E 25 min · Udine 27 min · sun 7 h 41 min. The first valleys north of Udine, towards the Julian Pre-Alps, among the wettest places in Europe: 2,590 mm a year in Taipana. Seismic zone 1 covers 5 of 6 towns.
• Gemona, Venzone and Lake Cavazzo · €750/m² · A&E 21 min · Udine 34 min · sun 7 h 13 min. The 1976 epicentre, rebuilt: in the typical town 52% of buildings date from 1981 or later. All of it is in seismic zone 1, with heavy rain (2,140 mm) and low prices just over half an hour from Udine (where to buy: the Gemona area).
• The Pordenone foothills and Piancavallo · €650/m² · A&E 19 min · Udine 59 min · sun 8 h 8 min. Villages at the foot of the mountains between Sacile and the Tagliamento, with the Piancavallo ski slopes 26 min up the road from Aviano. Low prices, but thin full-fibre coverage: a median 21.2%.

• The Friulian Dolomites and Val Tramontina · €565/m² · A&E 37 min · Udine 1 h 16 · sun 5 h 17 min. The emptiest valleys: in the typical town nobody was registered in 64% of homes (2011), and 10 of 10 towns have shrunk since 2001. In Claut, on 21 December, direct sun never reaches the town hall.
• Carnia and Sappada · €740/m² · A&E 21 min · Udine 1 h 01 · sun 5 h 9 min. 28 towns around Tolmezzo, the only hospital in the mountains, with the ski areas of Forni di Sopra, the Zoncolan and Sappada; long winters (98 frost days) and full fibre that reaches at least 91.0% of homes in half the towns, though some stay below two thirds.
• Tarvisio, the Canal del Ferro, Val Resia · €720/m² · A&E 33 min · Udine 59 min · sun 3 h 47 min. The gateway from Austria: Klagenfurt is 1 h 11 away, and from Tarvisio the hospital in Villach is closer than Tolmezzo. But December sun is the shortest in the region, and every town has lost residents since 2001 (8 of 8).

Each area has its own guide with the towns one by one; to compare two places side by side, use the atlas.