FAI Spring Days build a bridge between cultures

(ANSA) - Rome, March 14 - The Italian Environmental Fund (FAI) is holding the 27th edition of its "Spring Days" initiative on March 23 and 24, with more than 1,100 sites open especially for the occasion, including 296 religious sites, 227 palaces and villas, 30 castles, and 50 villages across 430 towns and 20 regions.
    Andrea Carandini and Marco Magnifico, FAI president and vice-president, respectively, called the event a "true bridge between cultures".
    Carandini called Italy an "amalgam of precious metals - indigenous, strangers - that have given life to the most meaningful and wonderful melting pot on our plane".
    Culture Minister Alberto Bonisoli said Italy is a country "that changes in just a few kilometres", resulting in "different cultures, landscapes, traditions, and gastronomy".
    "When these meet, with the right environment and dialogue, the result is greater than the sum of its parts," Bonisoli said.
    This year about a hundred foreign guides will join the 40,000 apprentice FAI guides to give tours at the event locations.
    Magnifico said there is something for everyone among the various sites to visit.
    One example, he said, is a 16th-century castle "that no one knows about" in the northern town of Melegnano, near Milan, whose "signore" was the "villain Medeghino dei Medici".
    The castle will open its non-restored east wing especially for the occasion.
    In La Spezia, visitors can tour two ships, the Italia and the Bergamini.
    In Florence, the Artemio Franchi stadium will be open to visitors.
    In Catania, visitors can tour the works of Street Art Silos.
    Sites will also include 35 parks and gardens, 22 archaeological sites, 23 bell towers, 11 libraries, eight former psychiatric clinics or historic hospitals, 12 theatres, and 20 bicycle paths in collaboration with the Italian Federation of the Friends of the Bicycle, FIAB.
    FAI Spring Days have seen nearly 11 million visitors since the event first began in 1993.
    FAI said it aims to increase its membership to 250,000 members from the current 190,000 by next year.