Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 March 2010 many historical places that are usually closed to the public will be open to visitors.

Like every year, this special weekend of openings will be organized by the FAI, Fondo Ambiente Italiano (Italian Environment Fund) a nonprofit organization focusing on the preservation of the Italian cultural and environmental heritage.

For this event, 590 places located in all Italian regions will be opened. The Chigi Palace in Rome, the Bank of Italy in Florence, the Braidense Library in Milan, the Scuola Grande della Misericordia in Venice, the mosaics of the Roman Villa of Casignana (Reggio Calabria), are some of these notable sites, but there will be many others in different cities and towns throughout the country.

The visits are guided by volunteers and access is by donation.

In addition, this year there will be some special locations that will be available only by becoming member of the FAI (possible by registering and making a donation on the spot). One of these special places is the apartment of Giuseppe Verdi at the Grand Hotel et de Milan in Milan.

For more information and for the detailed list of the sites visit:

www.giornatafai.it

By phone: +39 02 89780115

Here is the list of places where they have guided visits in foreign languages (unfortunately the web page is in Italian)