Ah shit, that's right. It's the first vowel...not that I'd be able to pronounce it correctly anyway, even though they use the same double vowel sounds here. See my location. Meduno, Friuli in Italian, Midun, "FriUul" in Friulano/Friulian/Furlan. It's a barbarian language, not dialect, native to this part brought here by Attila's hordes. Even well before Attila, around 400 B.C. it was ruled by Celtic tribes. People here are not Italian, they're Friulian, and their language is still spoken to this day. It's a fucking mess, too, and I only understand bits and pieces of it. I can speak Italian fluently but I'm clueless when it comes to Friulano. Annalisa has no problems pronouncing Dutch correctly because she uses the same inflections. I'm lost as a goose in a snowstorm, however. You can learn to roll your tongue like in Latin languages and sound native, but double vowels are a whole different story.
To my ears it sounds like they're being lightly shocked or goosed while in the middle of saying a vowel, so yes, it would be like "hoo gAAarden". It always gives me a chuckle.