The Italian Environmental Fund
(FAI) on October 15 is opening the doors of over 600 sites,
including historic palaces and gardens, as part of the campaign
"Let's remember to save Italy".
The association, which works to restore and preserve Italy's
artistic and environmental treasures, will offer this year 170
different itineraries across Italy with 800 young volunteers
working as tour guides.
The tours will explore locations of great cultural interest
that are usually closed to the public.
They include in Rome parts of the Janiculum, the private
apartments of the Corsini palace and the secret garden of Villa
Farnesina.
In Naples, tours will focus on different trades, such as
tailoring with a visit to the famous atelier that made the
costumes for Luchino Visconti's movie Il Gattopardo.
In Sicily's Alcara Li Fusi, near Messina, visitors will try
to get a glimpse of a royal eagle along the so-called 'path of
the griffon'.
FAI Vice-President Marco Magnifico said that almost every
city or town across the country has some unknown treasure that
will open to the public, such as the crypt in the Temple of
Bramante at the convent of San Pietro in Montorio in Rome and
the Grand Hotel Campo dei Fiori in the northern city of Varese,
a Belle Epoque architectural masterpiece by Giuseppe Sommaruga.
In Milan, Palazzo Mondadori in Segrate, near Milan, designed
by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, will open its doors,
along with the theater Piccolo Teatro.
The famous monastery in the southern town of Padula near
Salerno will also be opening, enabling visitors to admire, among
other things, the library's 18th-century ceramics by Giuseppe
Massa.
In Palermo, the archaeological museum will showcase its
first-floor rooms, which are usually closed to the public, with
rare travel books and 16th-century maps, among other things.
Venice will offer a glimpse of the Porta Nuova Tower at the
Arsenal.
Music will also be part of the itineraries, a first for the
event which will have as its face a 20-year-old pianist from
Zagreb, Ivan Krpan, who has just been awarded the prestigious
Busoni prize.
FAI's 2017 campaign is also promoting new memberships with
the objective of reaching 165,000 members by the end of the year
and raising at least one million euros.
A total of 900,000 euros were raised in 2016.
The fund said that it invested 11 million euros in the
management of sites in 2016, including four million euros for
restoration work.
It expects expenses to go up 6% with new sites opening in
future, including in 2019 Giacomo Leopardi's 'Colle
dell'Infinito' on Mount Tabor in Recanati and the Abbey of San
Fruttuoso where the Sala Capitolare will be transformed into a
laboratory open to visitors.
photo: a view from the Janiculum in Rome
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