Today we inaugurate a new category of post, The Places of F.A.I., in which we will describe our experiences of visiting those monuments, places, parks, that the F.A.I. (Italian Environment Fund) makes available to the public in its meritorious days of spring and autumn. Although often these are exceptional openings, we believe it is right to illustrate these very special places, especially when they are accessible for seated warriors; first of all to increase awareness of our artistic and landscape excellence and then also in view of possible new openings, perhaps promoted by one of our specialized tour operators. So let's start with a beautiful place that we visited last Sunday, March 24, 2019, during the Spring Day of the F.A.I. This is Villa Doria d'Angri and the following information is taken from this website:
https://www.uniparthenope.it/ricerca-e-terza-missione/terza-missione/villa-doria-dangri-la-città. Villa Doria d'Angri is one of the most important Italian neoclassical villas. The villa, which stands majestically on a tufaceous spur of the Posillipo hill, was built at the behest of Prince Marcantonio Doria d'Angri, the last leading exponent of the noble family of Genoese origin, was transformed from a farm into a neoclassical princely residence by the architect Bartolomeo Grasso and completed in 1833. The building has been part of the real estate assets of the University of Naples Parthenope since 1998, which uses it as a representative office and which has had the magnanimity to grant this opening to the public through the F.A.I. A large park of 18,000 square meters surrounds the structure and is equipped with paths and ramps that go up the hill. The beautiful terrace surrounds the entire structure on which, on each side, a loggia with four Ionic columns.
The octagonal Chinese pagoda was built by Antonio Francesconi with the visible intent of attracting attention, using a language in striking contrast with the architecture of the Villa above.
In 1880 Villa Doria d'Angri hosted Richard Wagner for several months. Here the German composer completed the "Parsifal" and wrote the autobiographical book "My Life". Since then, the room where Wagner stayed, also known as the Hall of Mirrors, has been called the "Sala Wagner":
Let's also take a look at the church, the restoration of which is almost completed:
And before leaving the villa, let's take a look from the terrace to that magnificent building which is the legendary Palazzo Donn'Anna; the building has been jutting out into the water for centuries and was an inspiration to the great writer Raffaele La Capria, who spent his childhood there:
Summing up this experience, we can say that from our point of view the accessibility was more than satisfactory, having had access to the Hall of Mirrors, the panoramic terrace and the church, thanks to the courtesy of the staff of the Parthenope University who more than validly supported the organization of the FAI A hypothetical visit organized for people with motion disabilities could, in our opinion, foresee access by minibus from the entrance of Via Posillipo, which would allow a more complete overview of the Villa.