FAI : Italy’s National Trust

How many of you know that since 1975, Italy has had a National Trust called FAI that adopts frescoes, gardens, parks, castles, stretches of coastline, old residences, monuments and landscapes ?  “Every day”, says the website of the FAI, “Italy-wide, treasures are at risk deterioration and neglect and are in need of urgent and constant care and restoration work in order to be protected and open to the public.”

“For this reason, we never tire of asking for material help from all sensitive and caring people, because every contribution, even the smallest, is a precious drop. And drop by drop we can save the best of Italy.”

That one most visited by our travelers is San Fruttuoso, below, a splendidly situated 11-13th century Benedictine abbey located in a small harbor and backed by a natural amphitheater of Mediterranean vegetation, near Portofino.

We encourage our travelers to consider FAI membership too : http://www.fondoambiente.it/upload/oggetti/Fai_qualcosa_a_inglese.pdf

You can join on their site, or at the door when you visit one of their locations. Among other things, membership allows free entry into any of the FAI’s 28 properties.

Not everyone knows about Como’s Villa del Balbaniello, but Insider’s Italy Como travelers always visit it.  We renew our membership there every year — a tradition we began when we first joined the FAI in 1986.   From mid March to mid November you can visit all days but Monday and Wednesday, from 10 – 6.  Access is by boat from Lenno, or (on Tuesdays, weekends and holidays) on foot on a 10 minute walk from Lenno’s Piazza della Chiesa.

This much loved, tiny barbershop, below, where the fine gentlemen of Genoa were first groomed in 1882, was redecorated by the original owner’s son in Art Deco style in 1922.  It was saved by FAI members in 1992.