Friuli in the context of "Julian March"

The Po Valley, Po Plain, Plain of the Po, or Padan Plain (Italian: Pianura Padana, pronounced [pjaˈnuːra paˈdaːna], or Val Padana) is a major geographical feature of northern Italy. It extends approximately 650 km (400 mi) in an east-west direction, with an area of 46,000 km (18,000 square miles) including its Venetic extension not actually related to the Po basin; it runs from the Western Alps to the Adriatic Sea. The flatlands of Veneto and Friuli are often considered apart since they do not drain into the Po, but they effectively combine into an unbroken plain, making it the largest in Southern Europe. It has a population of 17 million, or a third of Italy's total population.

The plain is the surface of an in-filled system of ancient canyons (the "Apennine Foredeep") extending from the Apennines in the south to the Alps in the north, including the northern Adriatic. In addition to the Po and its affluents, the contemporary surface may be considered to include the Savio, Lamone and Reno to the south, and the Adige, Brenta, Piave and Tagliamento of the Venetian Plain to the north, among the many streams that empty into the north Adriatic from the west and north.

Venetian, also known as wider Venetian or Venetan (łengua vèneta [ˈɰeŋɡwa ˈvɛneta] or vèneto [ˈvɛneto]), is a Romance language spoken natively in the northeast of Italy, mostly in Veneto, where most of the five million inhabitants can understand it. It is sometimes spoken and often well understood outside Veneto: in Trentino, Friuli, the Julian March, Istria, and some towns of Slovenia, Dalmatia (Croatia) and the Bay of Kotor (Montenegro) by a surviving indigenous Venetian population, and in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, the United States and the United Kingdom by Venetians in the diaspora.

Although referred to as an "Italian dialect" (Venetian: diałeto; Italian: dialetto) even by some of its speakers, the label is primarily political, referring to geography and not linguistics. In the realm of linguistics, Venetian is often considered a separate language from Italian, with its own local varieties. Its precise place within the Romance language family remains somewhat controversial however. Both Ethnologue and Glottolog group it into the Gallo-Italic branch (and thus, closer to French and Emilian–Romagnol than to Italian). Devoto, Avolio and Ursini reject such classification, and Tagliavini [it] places it in the Italo-Dalmatian branch of Romance.

The settlement of the Eastern Alps region by early Slavs took place during the 6th to 8th centuries CE. It formed part of the southward expansion of early Slavs which would result in the South Slavic group, and would ultimately result in the ethnogenesis of present-day Slovenes.The Eastern Alpine territories concerned comprise modern-day Slovenia, Eastern Friuli, in modern-day northeast Italy, and large parts of modern-day Austria (Carinthia, Styria, East Tyrol, Lower Austria and Upper Austria).

The Dogado, or the Duchy of Venice, was the metropolitan territory of the Republic of Venice, headed by the Doge, traditionally from 697, and up to 1797. It comprised the city of Venice and the narrow coastal strip from Loreo to Grado, though these borders later extended from Goro to the south, the Polesine and the Padovano to the west, the Trevisano and Friuli to the north and the mouth of the Isonzo to the east.

Apart from Venice, the capital and in practice a city-state of its own, the Dogado was subdivided in nine districts starting at the north: Grado, Caorle, Torcello, Murano, Malamocco, Chioggia, Loreo, Cavarzere and Gambarare (in Mira). In lieu of the earlier tribunes (elected by the people) and gastalds (corresponding with the Doge), during the Republic each district was led by a patrician with the title of podestà, with the exception of Grado, headed by a Count.

Friuli-Venezia Giulia (Italian: [friˈuːli veˈnɛttsja ˈdʒuːlja]) is one of the 20 regions of Italy and one of five autonomous regions with special statute. The regional capital is Trieste on the Gulf of Trieste, a bay of the Adriatic Sea.

Friuli-Venezia Giulia has a population of 1,194,095 in an area of 7,924.36 square kilometres (3,059.61 sq mi) as of 2025. A natural opening to the sea for many central European countries, the region is traversed by the major transport routes between the east and west of Southern Europe. It encompasses the historical-geographical region of Friuli and a small portion of the historical region of Venezia Giulia—also known in English as the Julian March—each with its own distinct history, traditions and identity.

Venetic (/vɪˈnɛtɪk/ vin-ET-ik) is an extinct Indo-European language, most commonly classified into the Italic subgroup, that was spoken by the Veneti people in ancient times in northeast Italy (Veneto and Friuli) and part of modern Slovenia, between the Po Delta and the southern fringe of the Alps, associated with the Este culture.

The language is attested by over 300 short inscriptions dating from the 6th to the 1st century BCE. Its speakers are identified with the ancient people called Veneti by the Romans and Enetoi by the Greeks. It became extinct around the 1st century when the local inhabitants assimilated into the Roman sphere. Inscriptions dedicating offerings to Reitia are one of the chief sources of knowledge of the Venetic language.

The Venetian Plain, or Venetian-Friulian Plain (Italian: Pianura Veneta or Pianura Veneto-friulana) is a major geographical feature of Italy. It extends approximately from the River Adige to the River Isonzo, in a southwest-to-northeast direction, including almost all the flatlands of Veneto and Friuli. The plain is divided into high and low plains with the high plain located between Brenta and Piave rivers. It is not properly related to the Po River basin, but it is often considered as part of the Po Valley since the flatlands of Veneto and Friuli do not drain into the Po, but they effectively combine into an unbroken plain. Sometimes, instead of the River Adige, the Euganei Hills and Berici Hills are considered to be its western border.

The Third Italian War of Independence (Italian: Terza guerra d'indipendenza italiana) was a war between the Kingdom of Italy and the Austrian Empire fought between June and August 1866. The conflict paralleled the Austro-Prussian War and resulted in Austria giving the region of Venetia (present-day Veneto, Friuli and the city of Mantua, the last remnant of the Quadrilatero) to the Second French Empire (acting as intermediary in negotiations), which formally gave it to Italy. Italy's acquisition of this wealthy and populous territory, annexed with a plebiscite, represented a major step in the Unification of Italy.