QUOTIDIANOMIME

On Saturday March 21 and Sunday March 22, 2015 do not make any plans: leave time for the FAI Spring Days, an event now in its 23rd edition, which opens the doors of Italian cultural heritage.

Churches, houses, villages, palaces, archaeological sites, castles, gardens, music archives, places normally inaccessible for two days will be open to the public and will accompany all kinds of events, from the laboratories of breathtaking concerts and tastings of typical products.

This year, the Days of Spring Italian Environment Fund will close the campaign “Remember to save Italy“, a week of fundraising by RAI dedicated to cultural heritage.

From March 16 to 22, a telethon will be held to tell the stories of our cultural heritage and to invite viewers to contribute in restoring and preserving the historical and artistic treasures of Italy.

There will be over 780 places open with visits with free contribution throughout Italy. From north to south, between castles and villages, between walks and museums, you are spoiled with choices. For this we have selected three routes, each with three recommended destinations, depending on whether you are in a family, cycling, or want to take advantage of special openings.

Among the recommended destinations for families, we recommend a visit to Bologna at the Teatro Comunale, scheduled for Saturday and Sunday from 9.30 to 18:00. A chance for young and old to discover the magnificent interiors of this extraordinary example of eighteenth-century architecture and to explore the “behind the scenes” of a play. Saturday and Sunday, in fact, there will be the staging of an opera.

The tours will be edited Apprentices Cicero, students with the help of their teachers and FAI Delegates become guides for a day, illustrating the historical and artistic aspects of the property. The project “Art as a bridge between cultures” will also ensure guided tours in Spanish, Romanian and Filipino.

Do not miss a visit on Saturday and Sunday at the port of Ancona. The route will wind through a series of stages representing the history of the port through the ages: the barracks of the Harbour, with its ancient and modern tombstones, sculptures, the square of Arms and the chapel of medieval origin, the “Captain’s House”, surviving building of the urban medieval port that houses inside a planetary interesting property of the Nautical Institute of Ancona, and then a guided tour of the archaeological remains of the ancient Roman port city. Here, too, they will present the Apprentices Cicero, while the observation of the sky in the Planetarium will be organized by the teaching staff of the Nautical Institute Volterra Elia.

Instead it will be in the name of the dive in the nature of the visit the Oasis Natural Park of San Bartolomeo di Caiazzo (Caserta). In a succession of streets and gardens for a total of 40 thousand square meters, the Association Stories of Earth will guide visitors through the botanic garden, illustrating the exotic tree species and Mediterranean fauna protected (storks, marabou storks, pelicans and flamingos ) and the Butterfly House.

If you love cycling and want to take advantage of the weekend to combine art and two-wheelers, particularly interesting is the bike ride organized by FIAB Milan Ciclobby to discover the workshops of the Teatro alla Scala, a former industrial settlement of the Ansaldo steel mills today that are home to most of the craftsmanship of stage. This impressive structure contains over 60,000 costumes and there are rooms for the chorus and a stage area for directed rehearsals which perfectly corresponds to the Scala stage. The meeting is for Saturday, March 21, at 14:15, in Largo Cairoli (gazebo Ciclobby) in Milan.

In Pisa instead, on Sunday, March 22 at 9:30 am, a bike ride will be led in the direction of the Carthusian Monastery, one of the most important Carthusian monasteries of Italy, as well as monumental complex of incredible beauty, in the countryside of Val Graziosa, classified according to the census Places of the Heart 2014. Inside there are frescoes, marble and precious furnishings, and a Natural History Museum, one of the oldest in the world. The meeting is in Pisa in Piazza Archbishopric.

 

Catania, however, will lead you to the discovery of its historical center, with a simple path and for the most part flat, that will visit various stages, including Piazza Duomo, the Elephant Fountain and the Cathedral of Sant’Agata. The meeting is scheduled for Sunday at 9:30 am, in Martyrs Square.

Special openings

If you want to take advantage of special openings of goods FAI, in Turin you can visit  on Saturday and Sunday from 9:30 am to 12 and from 14.00 to 18.00, the Museum of Radio and Television, which is a permanent exhibition located at the RAI Production Centre of Turin. Created more than 30 years ago, on the occasion of the exhibition “The Radio, history of sixty years from 1924 to 1984”, the collection now includes about 1,200 relics, materials and equipment technical-professional and domestic use, highlighting the evolution of various areas of communication (telegraph, telephone, radio, television) since the nineteenth century all the way  to the digital “revolution”. Visits will be in English. We also report a nice initiative scheduled for Sunday 22 in Turin from 10 to 18: the Association Torinese Tram Historical fact will provide visitors with a historic tram service with a thirties theme which will link some of the open sites.

Museum of Radio and Television 

In Rome, Palazzo Koch will open its doors to the public. It is a Neo-Renaissance building built between 1888 and 1892 and designed by Gaetano Koch, and has always been the headquarters of the Bank of Italy. Visitors can explore the great halls, decorated with polychrome marbles, Murano glass chandeliers, precious furnishings, and enriched by collections of ancient and modern artifacts. The visits, guaranteed also in English, are scheduled for Saturday (entrance for members FAI, with the possibility to register on-site) and Sunday from 10:00 to 17:00 (with input for all lanes for FAI members). By partnering with the Rome Marathon, Sunday 22 pedestrian crossings will be guaranteed to easily access open sites. For more information, please visit www.giornatefai.it
In Matera, finally, the Cathedral will welcome visitors on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, from 9:30 to 13:30 and from 14:30 to 18:30. The cathedral is a significant architectural testimony of the Romanesque style, and has always been a symbolic monument and a landmark for the community of Matera.

Images: www.giornatefai.it; www.sanbartolomeo-casaincampagna.it; www.teatroallascala.org; www.iluoghidelcuore.it