October 7, 2025

FAI Autumn Days: 12 and 13 October 2024 in Tuscany

All open places in Tuscany

The FAI Autumn Days 2025 return on Saturday 11 and Sunday 12 October 2025. A weekend dedicated to beauty, in which dozens of places usually closed to the public open their doors thanks to volunteers from the Italian Environment Fund. An opportunity to explore churches, palaces, villas, gardens and nature sites that tell the story of the widespread heritage of the region.

Let's see all the places open this year in Tuscany.

Arezzo

Teatro Vasariano

When Vasari redesigned Piazza Grande in Arezzo (1580‑1586), he included a theatre at the west end of the palace. Construction began in 1596: spectators entered from Praticino, while the Rectors of the Fraternity had access via an elevated walkway. In ‘600 it was known as “lo Stanzone”, in the first decades of ‘700 as “Teatro Pubblico”, then “Teatro Grande di Fraternita”, then “Teatro Regio” (1794), “Teatro Imperiale” (1811) and finally “Teatro la Fenice”.

Teatro Pietro Aretino

Located in the historic center of Arezzo, it was born inside the former Convent of the Servants of Mary, attached to the church of San Pier Piccolo. After the unification of Italy, the building passed to the state and was used as a school and theatre: a hall and stage were created in the former refectory of the friars.

Teatro Petrarca

Designed in 1828 by a group of Arezzo notables to replace the Teatro della Fenice, it was built by architect Vittorio Bellini and opened after 235 days. It has a horseshoe plan with four tiers of boxes; in 1839 the party room and the curtain painted by Angelo Sarri were added, depicting Petrarca welcomed by the people of Arezzo in 1350.

Firenze

Sede Rai

The Rai headquarters in Florence, located in Varlungo in Largo De Gasperi, is the regional radio and television production center and occupies approximately 18,000 m² between Via Aretina and Lungarno Aldo Moro. Designed in the ’60s by architect Italo Gamberini and inaugurated in 1968, the rationalist building combines functionality and modern architecture, with distinct volumes for offices and studios, transparent and opaque facades, flexible spaces and works of art dedicated to radio and television. The construction represents a technological and cultural landmark, awarded with the In/Arch 1969.

Palazzo Pazzi-Quaratesi

Palazzo Pazzi, located in the historic center of Florence between Via del Proconsolo and Borgo Albizi, is a masterpiece of Renaissance civil architecture, built between 1458 and 1469 by Jacopo de’ Pazzi. After the family was confiscated in 1478, it passed to several owners until INPS in 1931. Attributed today to Giuliano da Maiano, the palace stands out for its elegant façade with rustic ashlar work on the ground floor, decorated mullioned windows, porticoed courtyard and Pazzi coat of arms, reflecting the prestige of the Florentine magnate families.

Badia Fiesolana (Fiesole)

Badia Fiesolana, located in Fiesole in the metropolitan city of Florence, has hosted the European University Institute (EUI), a European Union study and research centre, since 1976. Founded as the Abbey of San Bartolomeo, it was a fulcrum of Florentine humanistic culture thanks to Cosimo the Elder, who promoted Neoplatonic knowledge there. The church, with a Romanesque façade and Renaissance interior, preserves the fifteenth-century cloister attributed to Michelozzo, baroque frescoes by Giovanni da San Giovanni and the Chapter House. The panoramic loggia offers views of Florence, creating a link between architecture, landscape and cultural history.

Grosseto

Reggimento Savoia Cavalleria

The museum of the Savoia Cavalleri regiment offers visitors an original and complete synthesis of the three-century history of one of the oldest units of the Italian Army. The cult of traditions, a peculiar characteristic of the Cavalry Army, kept alive through the vicissitudes of the homeland's history, has allowed many finds and rich documentation of the events of "Savoy Cavalry" to reach us. Material from the various eras, from the foundation to the peacekeeping missions of the 90s up to today, collected with diligence, lovingly guarded and handed down by knights with red ties, proud of their past.

Borgo di Pereta

Pereta is located in the Albegna valley and stands on a hill about three hundred meters above sea level. Developed first as a fortified center and then as an inhabited center in the 10th – 11th centuries, it became a possession of the Church and subsequently granted as a fief to the Aldobrandeschs. Pereta followed the events of the struggles between the Republic of Siena and the Aldobrandesca County. Due to its strategic position, Pereta ended up in the expansionist aims of Siena, which took it over in 1383. Pereta linked its history to that of Siena for over a century and a half until the fall of the Republic.

Borgo di Magliano in Toscana

These villages are located on an area inhabited in Etruscan and Roman times, chosen by the Aldobrandeschi counts for their notable strategic value. Born as Castrum in the 11th century, it went through several historical phases. After the dominion of the Aldobrandeschi, it passed to the Sienese, then ceded to the Medici. These granted it as a fiefdom to the Bentivoglio family, who maintained control of it even during the passage of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany from the Medici to the Lorena family. Its walls are a clear example of complex fortification, the result of different construction phases that have overlapped over time.

Livorno

Cantine palio marinaro e unione canottieri livornesi

The Palio Marinaro winery, located in the basement of Palazzo Squilloni in Livorno, has retained all the equipment for setting up the city's pitch and rowing competitions since 1992, including the Palio Marinaro, the Risiatori and the Barontini. Built in a nineteenth-century building with large classrooms and cross vaults, it houses Pavia, district flags, buoys and historical posters, testimony to the long sporting and folkloristic tradition of Livorno rowing competitions.

Campiglia Marittima

The itinerary in the village of Campiglia Marittima includes the Rocca, the Palazzo Pretorio, the Teatro dei Concordi and the Parish Church of San Giovanni. The Praetorian Palace, the 13th-century residence of the Captain of Justice, features the clock tower and the coats of arms of the Captains who ruled between the 15th and 17th centuries. The Teatro dei Concordi, inaugurated in 1867 based on a design by the engineer. Francesco Fedi, has an elliptical plan with 38 boxes on three tiers and can accommodate up to 600 spectators; the external facade is neoclassical and the interior decorated with a rich vault. The Parish Church of San Giovanni, documented since 1075, has a Latin cross plan and a trussed roof in Pisan Romanesque style.

Villa Mussio (Campiglia Marittima)

Villa Mussio, in Campiglia Marittima (LI), dominates the Val di Cornia and offers panoramic views of the Tyrrhenian Sea and the surrounding islands. Dating from the mid-nineteenth century, it was designed by architect Cesare Spighi for lawyer Luigi Mussio as a palatial yet familiar home. The villa was also the home of the painter Carlo Guarnieri. Recently, the complex has been renovated, preserving historical elegance and making the interior and exterior spaces more functional and usable.

Lucca

Chiesa di Santa Caterina

The Church of Santa Caterina, one of the finest examples of Baroque architecture in Lucca, once part of the convent of the cloistered nuns of the Order of Saint Catherine of Siena, stands in front of the former Tobacco Factory and was the place of prayer of the cigar makers before work. Originally built in 1575, it was transformed in 1738 by the architect Francesco Pini, a pupil of Filippo Juvarra, who gave it the scenographic and dynamic style typical of the Baroque. Today the convent has been transformed into homes and the medical garden replaced by a garage, but the church retains its beauty intact. The "suspended affresco" of the dome is extraordinary, a rare example in Italy, which makes this baroque jewel unique and precious.

Teatrino di Vetriano

In Vetriano, an Apennine that borders Lucca, there is a small theater to discover which has a history that dates back to 1889, when the engineer Virgilio Biagini entrusted the small community with a barn to use as a theatre. The inhabitants, mostly farmers, welcomed the donation with great favor, creating a "Country Society", which taxed itself with a one-off payment of 2 lire and then 50 cents a month to build the theatre. In 1997, Engineer Biagini's heirs turned to the FAI, donating their share of the theater to take care of it. After a careful restoration, the Vetriano theater has come back to life and today it is possible to admire it as it was at the end of the nineteenth century, with a stage, five and a half meters deep and wide, and a beautiful painted curtain.

Museo virtuale della Scultura e dell'architettura

MuSA is located in Pietrasanta, in the former "Luisi" factory, a historic twentieth-century marble workshop, now regenerated thanks to an intervention that has given the community a space of memory and innovation. With its hybrid nature of physical space and virtual museum, it is also a privileged observation point on the dialogue between memory and innovation, between craftsmanship and technology, between local and global. The restoration work, which began in 2007, transformed two artisan buildings of the former Luisi into an innovative multimedia museum, with an investment of approximately 1 million euros supported by the Lucca Chamber of Commerce, the Tuscany Region and the Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca. Inside, eight large screens, a sophisticated sound system and a control system orchestrate an immersive and engaging vision.

Pieve di Santa Maria Assunta - Villa Basilica

The village of Villa Basilica houses numerous Romanesque testimonies, such as the Basilica of Santa Maria Assunta, which has documented origins from 981. Over the centuries, especially between the 12th and 13th centuries, the basilica was enlarged and transformed until it took on the Romanesque appearance it still has today. The plan has three naves, divided by columns and pillars embellished with capitals with geometric and vegetal motifs, typical of the Lucca tradition. Inside there are works of great value: a thirteenth-century crucifix of Byzantine inspiration, attributed to the master Berlinghiero Berlinghieri; a Madonna and Child from the fourteenth-century Lucca school; and a stone baptismal font, probably from the Romanesque period. To complete the harmony of the whole, the bell tower with its mullioned and triple lancet windows, an elegant expression of the architectural taste of the 12th century.

Borgo di Anchiano

The village of Anchiano, in the municipality of Borgo a Mozzano, stands out in the panorama of the Serchio Valley for its location on an isolated plateau which has meant that over the centuries it has been identified as a strategic hub for surveillance on the access routes to the valley and to Garfagnana. Standing out in the panorama of the small fortified village is the monumental Romanesque church of San Pietro Apostolo and its bell tower, in local stone, in turn built on the walls of the ancient early medieval castle. The area where the village of Anchiano stands today has been frequented since Roman times and the name of the place derives from its location on a smaller bend of the Serchio river, which has now dried up following reclamation works.

Bunker della Linea Gotica

The birth of this bunker dates back to the years between 1943 and 1944, when the German army established the construction of an extraordinary defensive line from the Adriatic to the Tyrrhenian Sea. Completed within a year, this site remained the only intact one in the entire Line, called Gothic, and for this reason it represents an important historical heritage. The stretch of the Gothic Line that crosses the town of Anchiano develops below the parish church, which stands on the plateau once occupied by the medieval castle, enjoying a great view of the valley below. The large bunker, built on the stretch of the line, is composed of a large central hall, two armed positions and an observation point. Inside its galleries, finds and objects that tell the life of the soldiers during the last days of the siege are still preserved today.

Borgo di Ghivizzano

About 30 km from Lucca, there is the village of Ghivizzano, which stands out in the panorama of the Middle Serchio Valley, with its characteristic medieval stone tower. It is characterized by the typical appearance of the Tuscan villages of the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance. The oldest document regarding the village dates back to 983 and testifies to the presence of a Lombard settlement, consisting of a first fortress. In the late medieval period, various families followed control of the fortress, the most important of which was that of the Antelminelli, who managed to block the Florentine invasion. In the early 14th century Castruccio Castracani, lord of Lucca, renovated this fortification and surrounded the entire village with walls.

Massa

Casa Piccianti ad Antona

Casa Piccianti from the 16th century is an ancient stately residence, the result of the fusion of two different buildings with several doors still visible today. It looks like an imposing four-storey structure, built in local stone and stones. The living room inside still retains the original 17th century chestnut board floor. Owned by the Della Bianchina family, present in Antona since 1585 and known by the nickname "Piccianti", the building, almost unchanged over time, bears witness to the ancient history of the village of Antona. A mountain village rich in history, immersed in a splendid landscape, among chestnut woods and olive trees. The first documentary evidence of the settlement dates back to the end of the 10th century. Located at the foot of the Apuan Alps, already in the 16th century. and holiday resort of the Cybo-Malaspina family, Marquises of Massa and Carrara, it offers and still preserves intact the character of an ancient village.

Pisa

Chiostro di Santa Croce in Fossabanda

The complex of Santa Croce in Fossabanda in Pisa, founded in the 13th century for the Dominican nuns, then passed to the Franciscans and underwent various uses between hospital, hospital and school. Gothic in style with Renaissance elements, it houses a two-storey cloister attributed to Michelozzo, with a loggia and frescoed lunettes. Restored and reopened in 2024, it is now a college of the St. Anne High School.

Giardini di Sant’Anna

The Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Pisa is located in Piazza Martiri della Libertà and in the nearby Palazzo Pilo-Boyl, historic buildings that date back to the 12th century and 15th century convents. The School, officially since 1987, preserves cloisters, vegetable gardens, frescoes and medieval finds, while the Pilo-Boyl Palace, noble since the seventeenth century, was restored and adapted in 2024 to house classrooms and offices, preserving the historical and artistic memory of the rooms.

Giardino post-bellico quartiere Sant’Antonio

The Garzella Garden, in the Sant'Antonio district of Pisa, stands on an area rebuilt after the bombings of 1943. Designed by Giovanni Battista Garzella, it favors an open and green space over the surrounding dense buildings. With stone paths, lawns, shrubs and eclectic blooms, the garden is a green lung and place of family memory, a rare testament to the domestic landscape in the neighborhood.

Pistoia

Palazzo Marchetti

Palazzo Marchetti, located in the historic center of Pistoia near Piazza del Duomo, was founded in 1658 by Cesare Marchetti and completed in 1679 via the unification and renovation of multiple mansions. A centre of eighteenth-century Pistoia cultural life, it houses the Marchetti-Ducceschi archive and boasts interiors decorated with allegorical frescoes by Giovan Domenico Ferretti and Pier Dandini, coffered ceilings with mythological paintings by Paolo De Matteis and Giuseppe Simonelli, as well as a garden with an 1822 arcade designed by Antonio Targiozzi Tozzetti. The palace is a significant example of the late Baroque and Rococo style in Tuscany.

Palazzo Ganucci-Cancellieri

Palazzo Ganucci Cancellieri, located in the historic center of Pistoia near Piazza del Duomo, was designed by Jacopo Lafri and completed by Leonardo Marcacci. Owned by the Chancellors since 1609 and later by the Ganucci, the building is characterized by stone portals, a majestic grand staircase and neoclassical renovations from the 18th‑19th century. On the main floor there are paintings by Ferdinando Marini, the large reception hall with the twelve family coats of arms and the refined fan hall with a fresco of Hebe on the ceiling, testifying to the elegance and historical importance of the family.

Le stanze

The complex “Le Stanze”, in the historic center of Pistoia near Piazza del Duomo, has medieval roots such as Santa Maria in Torre and hosted Benedictine nuns between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Transformed into the headquarters of the Accademia degli Armonici, today it is intended for events and congresses. The building is divided into rooms communicating around a large ballroom, with nineteenth and early twentieth century neoclassical decorations, a double helical marble staircase, ceilings with phytomorphic motifs and the “Sala dei Pesci”, a historic theater decorated by Luigi Mazzei

Villa Borghese (Montecatini Terme)

The Villa Borghese of Montecatini Terme, also known as the Medici Villa of Montevettolini, stands among the hills of Valdinievole, near the center of Montecatini, immersed in a thermal and landscape context. Built at the end of the 16th century by Gherardo Mechini for Ferdinando I de’ Medici, it incorporates the medieval fortress and the Canton tower. The villa, with a twelve-sided polygonal plan, combines the fortified character with the elegance of the hunting lodge, representing a sober and solemn example of late Tuscan Renaissance architecture.

Prato

Villa di San Leonardo al Palco

Villa del Palco, located on the slopes of Calvana in Prato, dominates the area thanks to an artificial terrace. The area has been inhabited since the Bronze Age and was transformed in the fourteenth century by the merchant Francesco Datini. The villa preserves the fifteenth-century church of San Francesco with a crypt decorated by Giacinto Fabbroni, a Renaissance cloister and a seventeenth-century one designed by Fra Luca Bussori. The complex also includes a seventeenth-century garden with boxwood-lined flowerbeds and a central driveway that leads to the Belvedere, an expression of elegance and harmony between architecture and landscape.

Siena

Villa Volte

Nestled among the hills west of Siena, Villa Chigi Farnese is an elegant example of Renaissance architecture, commissioned by Mariano Chigi at the beginning of the sixteenth century and redesigned by Baldassarre Peruzzi in 1505. Conceived as a country residence and “curarum refugium”, the villa combines geometric balance and landscape harmony. The building, decorated with 16th-century frescoes from the Peruzzian circle and with the Chigi-Della Rovere coat of arms, represents one of the most enduring models of Sienese architecture. Renaissance gardens, with carved hedges, nymphaeums and panoramic views, complete the ideal of perfect dialogue between art and nature.

Antico Ospedale Monna Agnese

In the historic center of Siena, in via del Poggio 16, stands the Linguistic High School and Technical Institute “Monna Agnese”, founded as a hospital for the sick and giving birth. Thanks to Agnese's generosity, inspired by the teachings of Saint Francis, the hospital was transformed into a girls' school specializing in home economics, embroidery, cooking and weaving. Over the centuries, the institute has maintained its educational and practical vocation, evolving into a modern upper secondary school, continuing to bear witness to the commitment to others and the attention to useful and concrete training.

Torre e Casa Campatelli (San Gimignano)

Among the 72 towers that once dominated San Gimignano, only 14 have reached us. Among these, the Torre dei Campatelli stands out, an imposing 28-metre tower-house built in the 12th century and the only one in the village to have preserved its original volume, entirely empty. Transformed in the 19th century into an elegant bourgeois residence by the Campatelli family, it still preserves furnishings, collections and memories that tell the story of the life of a Tuscan family between the 19th and 20th centuries. Donated to the FAI by Lydia Campatelli in 2005, the house is today a fascinating domestic museum, where the medieval history of San Gimignano is intertwined with the private history of its last owners.

For some visits, reservations are required on the site www.giornatefai.it

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