The association, which works to restore and preserve Italy’s artistic and environmental treasures, will offer 170 different itineraries across Italy, with 800 young volunteers working as tour guides.

The tours will explore locations of great cultural interest that are usually closed to the public.

FAI Vice President Marco Magnifico said that almost every city or town across the country has some hidden treasure that will open to the public.   

In Rome, parts of the Janiculum, the private apartments of the Corsini Palace and the secret garden of Villa Farnesina will be open for exploration.

In Naples, tours will focus on different trades, such as tailoring, with a visit to the famous atelier that made the costumes for Luchino Visconti’s movie ‘Il Gattopardo’.

In Sicily’s Alcara Li Fusi, near Messina, visitors will have the chance to catch a glimpse of a royal eagle along the so-called “path of the griffon”.

In Palermo, the archaeological museum will showcase its first-floor rooms, which are usually closed to the public and house rare travel books and 16th-century maps, among other things.

The famous monastery in the southern town of Padula near Salerno will also open, enabling visitors to admire the library’s 18th-century ceramics by Giuseppe Massa.

Music will be a highlight of the campaign, and the face of the event will be Ivan Krpan, a 20-year-old pianist from Zagreb who was recently awarded the prestigious Busoni prize after winning the Busoni International Piano Competition.

FAI’s 2017 campaign is also promoting new memberships with the objective of reaching 165,000 members by the end of the year and raising at least €1 million.

A total of €900,000 was raised in 2016.

The fund said it invested €11 million in the management of sites in 2016, including €4 million for restoration work.

It expects expenses to increase by 6 per cent with new sites opening in future, including Giacomo Leopardi's ‘Colle dell'Infinito’ on Mount Tabor in Recanati, and the Abbey of San Fruttuoso, where the Sala Capitolare will be transformed into a laboratory open to visitors.

With ANSA