Udine (US: OO-dee-nay, Italian: [ˈuːdine] (listen); Friulian: Udin; German: Weiden in Friaul; Slovene: Videm; Latin: Utinum) is a city and comune in north-eastern Italy, in the middle of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, between the Adriatic Sea and the Alps (Alpi Carniche). Its population was 100,514 in 2012, 176,000 with the urban area.
Udine was first attested in medieval Latin records as Udene in 983 and as Utinum around the year 1000. The origin of the name Udine is unclear. It has been tentatively suggested that the name may be of pre-Roman origin, connected with the Indo-European root *ou̯dh- 'udder' used in a figurative sense to mean 'hill'. The Slovene name Videm (with final -m) is a hypercorrection of the local Slovene name Vidan (with final -n), based on settlements named Videm in Slovenia. The Slovene linguist Pavle Merkù characterized the Slovene form Videm as an "idiotic 19th-century hypercorrection."
Udine is the historical capital of Friuli. The area has been inhabited since the Neolithic age, and is believed to have been settled by Illyrians.
Based on an old Hungarian legend, Attila (?–453), the leader of the Huns, built a hill there, when besieging Aquileia, because he needed a winter quarters billet: he instructed his soldiers to bring soil in their helmets and shields, because the landscape was too flat, without any hill. He established the town there, and built a square-shape tower.After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the area increased in importance after the decline of Aquileia and afterwards of Cividale also.