FAI Autumn Days

What are the FAI Autumn Days

The FAI Autumn Days are the major national campaign through which the FAI - Fondo per l'Ambiente Italiano ETS opens hundreds of sites to the public for a single weekend—places that are normally closed, little-known, or off the beaten tourist track. They are the autumn edition, a twin but entirely distinct event, to the more famous FAI Spring Days: the calendar changes, and above all, the sites open to the public change, selected each year by local delegations. In Rome, the capital of the Metropolitan City of Rome and the Lazio Region, the event is organized by the FAI Rome Delegation and involves dozens of locations spread between the historic center and the outlying districts.

The Rome you never get to visit

The essence of the initiative lies right here: showing what usually remains behind a closed door. In recent editions, the Rome Delegation has opened sites of extraordinary interest such as the Casino Giustiniani Massimo ai Laterani, with its 19th-century frescoes inspired by Dante's Divine Comedy, Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, and Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered; the Church of San Lorenzo in Panisperna on the Viminal Hill, featuring Mannerist frescoes and the sarcophagus of Saint Bridget; or the historic complex of the San Giovanni Hospital and the Palace of Water and Light. In other years, ministerial buildings, monumental backrooms, and technical structures that tell the story of contemporary Rome more than the postcard version have been opened. Each edition offers a different list: this is why many Romans participate every autumn.

The Apprentice Ciceronians

The hallmark of the FAI Days is the storytelling entrusted to the Apprentice Ciceronians: high school and university students—in Rome, including Architecture and Restoration courses—who, after training with FAI volunteers, welcome visitors and narrate the history of the site. It is not a traditional guided tour but an educational project that brings younger generations closer to heritage, giving the openings a direct and passionate tone. Alongside them, volunteers from the Delegation and FAI Groups work together with the owners and institutions that grant access.

How to participate

The sites are accessible to everyone with a suggested voluntary donation, intended to support the Foundation's mission: to protect, restore, and promote Italy's historical, artistic, and landscape heritage. Some sites, the most fragile or popular ones, are reserved for FAI members or require online booking: this regularly happens for private residences and spaces with limited capacity. Those who sign up for FAI membership on-site generally gain access to reserved tours during the weekend.

Tips for planning your day

• Check the list of open sites in Rome as soon as it is published: the most coveted spots fill up in a few hours.
• Build an itinerary by area (historic center, Esquilino, Celio, EUR, districts) to avoid unnecessary travel in a very large city.
• Check the opening hours for each site: many locations have morning and afternoon slots with early last-entry times.
• Consider the sites open in the rest of the Metropolitan City and Lazio, from Monte Porzio Catone to Gaeta.

A widespread heritage

The FAI Autumn Days clearly demonstrate a characteristic of Italian heritage: its widespread distribution. In Rome, famous monuments coexist with hundreds of minor assets, deconsecrated churches, archives, courtyards, gardens, and historic workshops that do not have regular opening hours. The October weekend is the occasion, often the only one of the year, to walk through them. For the foreign visitor, it is also an unusual way to read the capital: not as a sequence of great archaeological sites, but as the daily layering of a city that has continued to build upon itself for twenty centuries.