Friuli-Venezia Giulia is a beautiful region of the North Eastern part of Italy, next door to Venice, washed by the Adriatic Sea and bordering with Austria and Slovenia. Although it is not on highly beaten tourist tracks, the area offers such a range of lovely natural, historical and cultural attractions that the writer Ippolito Nievo called it "a small compendium of the universe".

The Consortium for the Protection of Historical Castles of Friuli-Venezia Giulia is an association that gathers together nearly all the private and public castle owner of the Region.
Born in 1968, the Consortium is active in the protection of rich castle wealth of this area, which encounters more than 300 castles, fortifications, ruins and so on, by promoting correct restoration and preservation works, studies, publications, conventions, seminars, restorations courses and exploitation of the castles as tourist attractions. All the Consortium's activities are carried out by its members, that is the castle owners themselves.

In 1989, Lella Williams di Strassoldo, member of the Consortium and present person in charge with tourism of the same, opened an office for the exploitation of regional castles from the tourist point of view and in a few years she managed to open up to the public quite a many of private historical houses and castles, setting up the "Exclusive Visits" initiative.