On Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 October 2024, the FAI Autumn Days, one of the most important and beloved public events dedicated to Italy’s cultural heritage and landscape, organised by FAI-Fondo per l’Ambiente Italiano ETS, will return for the thirteenth time.

From the north to the south of the peninsula, 700 extraordinary, little-known and little-valued or unusual and curious places, some of which are usually inaccessible, will open to the public in 360 cities (list of open places and how to participate can be found at www.giornatefai.it). At each visit, you can support FAI’s mission with a donation.

Those who take part in the FAI Days, animated and promoted by the FAI Youth Groups, together with all the volunteers of the Trust’s Territorial Network, will have the opportunity to discover and get to know the variety of treasures in history, art, and nature that dot Italy through unexpected stories and untold tales. Historic palazzos, villas, churches and castles will open their doors and be revealed. Museums, art collections, archaeological sites, libraries, artisan workshops, examples of industrial archaeology and manufacturing sites will also be open to visitors, and itineraries in villages and nature areas, urban parks, botanical gardens and historic gardens will be planned. The FAI Autumn Days are organised as part of the Foundation’s Octoberfundraising campaign, which runs for the entire month.

Numerous and varied venues will open in large cities.

* In Rome, for example, you will be able to visit the 18th-century Villa Bonaparte (with entry reserved for FAI members), seat of the French Embassy to the Holy See, which in 1816 was purchased by Pauline, Napoleon’s sister and wife of Prince Camillo Borghese, who commissioned the renovation of the interior decoration in the Empire style, which can still be admired today. You will also discover the American Academy in Rome, one of the most prestigious cultural institutions in Italy, founded in 1894 by a group of architects, archaeologists and other intellectuals and still committed to supporting the work of artists and scholars.

* In Milan, it will be possible to visit Palazzo Cusani, usually closed as the headquarters of the Comando Militare Esercito Lombardia (Lombardy Army Military Command), as well as NATO’s representative office in Milan, characterized by its sumptuous late Baroque façade commissioned by Cardinal Agostino II and its interiors preserving many 18th-century decorations. The Politecnico’s Bovisa Campus in Via La Masa will also open in the city, housing the School of Industrial and Information Engineering, with a new laboratory building, the EN:lab, dedicated to the activities of the Energy Department and designed with innovative solutions for efficient and integrated energy management.

* on the hill of Turin you will visit the majestic Villa d’Agliè, unchanged since the beginning of the 17th century, with its marvelous coffered ceilings, rooms with Chinese wallpaper and the splendid historical park of horse chestnuts and lime trees.

* In Naples, you can get to know the 19th-century Palazzo San Giacomo, the municipal palace renovated in the 1930s to a design by the Roman architect Marcello Piacentini. From the balconies of the Sala della Giunta you can enjoy a magnificent view of the Piazza del Municipio, the monumental Neptune fountain, the Maritime Station and Vesuvius dominating the panorama.

* Bologna will exceptionally open Palazzo Grassi, home of the Circolo Ufficiali and usually inaccessible to the public, one of the few surviving testimonies of the medieval urban layout, distinguished by the very rare portico supported by wooden beams with its characteristic ‘crutch’ shape.

* In Syracuse, we will visit the Harbour Master’s Office, inside the large building that housed the maritime station, inaugurated in 1930 in the presence of King Victor Emmanuel III, equipped with shelters for travelers on the sea side and on the track side, a goods warehouse, a loading platform and a telegraph. Still in Sicily, one enters the Capo Peloro Lighthouse in Messina, located at the entrance to the Strait, which was already manned in ancient times. Octagonal in shape to withstand strong winds and equipped with a lantern visible even 22 nautical miles away, it plays a crucial role in the maritime security of one of the most strategic areas of the Mediterranean.

* In Perugia, we will discover the Oratory San Francesco dei Nobili, normally closed to the public, one of the most important examples of early baroque in Perugia. During the visit, we will admire the paintings by G. A. Scaramuccia among the treasures kept here and learn more about the traditions of the Confraternity of the Disciplinati di San Francesco.

* In Bari, the Banca d’Italia, one of the most beautiful and important buildings in the city, inaugurated in 1932 and characterized by the Art Nouveau-inspired stained glass windows of the Salone del Pubblico and the eclectic staircase in precious marble leading to the Sala del Consiglio, will be open to visitors.

* Ancona will see the opening of Palazzo Benincasa (admission reserved for FAI members), built in the 15th century by the wealthy shipowner Dioniso Benincasa, who owned the city’s most powerful fleet. On the main floor, visitors will be able to see the rooms of the Franco Amatori Library of Economic History, with frescoes of sacred and profane subjects largely painted by the Lombard painter Giuseppe Pallavicini between the 18th and 19th centuries.

We will visit places that tell curious stories that are little known or exploited, real ‘gems’ kept in small municipalities. Among the outstanding and exceptional Venetian openings will be Villa Forni Cerato in Montecchio Precalcino (VI), one of the twenty-four Palladian villas on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Among the ‘goodies’ will also be the Galeazza Pepoli Castle in Crevalcore (BO), a 14th-century plain fortress, demolished and then rebuilt in style between 1869 and 1970; despite the damage inflicted by the 2012 earthquake, it still preserves richly frescoed rooms, some of which have been restored. Also to be discovered is the Aqueduct Bridge in Gravina in Puglia (BA), the setting for Daniel Craig’s spectacular ‘jump’ in the latest James Bond 007 film – No Time to Die (2021), voted into the FAI’s ‘I Luoghi del Cuore’ program in 2020 and at the center of a redevelopment project; the fascinating and iconic Colombaia, Luchino Visconti’s summer residence in Ischia (NA), protected by dense vegetation and the rocky coastline, home to the museum dedicated to the director with costumes used on the sets and sets, furniture elements, sketches, photos and scripts.

Other villages in Liguria include Tellaro (SP), perched on a cliff overlooking the Gulf of La Spezia, which enchants with its narrow, winding alleyways and pastel-colored houses overlooking the sea, and Castelvecchio di Rocca Barbena (SV), a medieval village perched on the mountain at an altitude of 1100 meters, where, according to tradition, the famous saying ‘to be a bastard’ was born.

In continuation of FAI’s awareness-raising campaigns #Faiperilclima and #Faibiodiversità on the topics of climate change and biodiversity protection, many openings dedicated to sustainability and knowledge of nature and landscape will be organised.

Visit www.giornatefai.it* for the full list of special openings and how to participate.

This edition of the FAI Autumn Days is made possible thanks to the generous participation of companies and institutions. Visit the dedicated page.*

*articles in Italian