An appointment much loved by Italians is back. Spring Days they will open the doors of historic buildings, archaeological areas, villages of ancient traditions, marine colonies and abandoned former hospitals, places of sport, crafts and industry, churches and monuments usually closed and inaccessible. The chosen weekend is Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 March, a weekend in which it will be possible to relive the vastness of the Italian cultural, historical and architectural heritage.
On the occasion of 27 edition of the Fai Days of Spring, will be approx 1.100 places open in 430 locations from all over Italy. 296 places of worship, 227 palaces and villas, 30 castles and 50 villages including the Sixteenth-century castle of Melegnano, near Milan, remained in the hands of the Medici of Marignano until 1981, the Palace of the Consulta, in Rome, with the eighteenth-century imprint of Ferdinando Fuga, today the seat of the Constitutional Court and in Naples Villa Doria d'Angri, built in 1831 at the behest of Marcantonio VII Doria prince of Angri.
The days are organized by the 325 offices scattered throughout the territory. The places will be open from 10am to 18pm. Entrance on Saturday 23 March is reserved for Fai members, while on Sunday the entrance will be open to all. An optional contribution will also be requested (starting from 2, 3 or 5 euros) to support the mission FAI has been committed to for over 40 years: the care and protection of our country's assets.
The catalog of assets that can be visited also includes: the Park of Villa Gregoriana in Tivoli, a destination for travellers, poets, artists, kings and emperors over the centuries, which was reopened to the public in 2005 thanks to Fai. Among the other Roman wonders, in via Ventiquattro Maggio, it will be possible to visit the Church of San Silvestro al Quirinale with a single nave with side chapels, a veritable chest of sixteenth-century treasures, the National Institute of Roman Studies, in Piazza dei Cavalieri di Malta which will open the doors of the cloister, the roof garden overlooking the Tiber and the royal apartment of Charles IV of Bourbon and Oak Palace, in via della Conciliazione, now the seat of the Order of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem, the pictorial cycle of Pinturicchio. If we move then, in the heart of the capital here Palace Florence, in Piazza Firenze, where the Dante Alighieri Society is based, with an Italian garden dotted with archaeological finds.
The project “Bridge Between Cultures” will witness the various cultural influences scattered in the open assets. the theme ofimmigration and comparison between religions and cultures is now a hot topic nowadays. Many places demonstrate the wealth born from the encounter between our culture and that of European, Asian, American and African countries. For example the Carlo Viganò Library of the Catholic University in Brescia, with Latin, Greek, Arabic and vernacular testimonies collected in the manuscripts or Piazza Sett' Angeli in Palermo or the Chinese Cabinet of the Royal Palace in Turin and the Dalmatian School of Saints George and Tryphon to Venice.
“In Italy there are specificities that change a few kilometers away. – commented the Minister for Cultural Heritage and Activities Alberto Bonisoli – It is no coincidence, the man has put his own into it. It is the fruit of many civilizations absorbed in different ways.”
The visits will be conducted thanks to the enthusiasts volunteers do who have chosen to dedicate their free time to spreading the values and work of the foundation. They will tell the history, art and architecture of the places, also revealing the hidden secrets, made accessible thanks to Fai. School kids who study the goods and then tell them about them to visitors, called the “Apprentice Guides” will be 40.000.
The Fondo Ambiente Italiano intends to grow numerically, registration is very simple. Through the membership fees, the association will take care of the Italian artistic and natural heritage. The archaeologist Andrea Carandini, president of Fai explains: "We are now 200.000 members and by next year we would like to be 250.000, we are many but we want to be more, to implement our mission in the most complete way which is to protect, know, promote and make people enjoy and love that natural, historical and artistic heritage which is the face of our Italy and which only the contribution of the whole Republic, from above and below, from the State and from the spontaneous committees, can save”.
