From 18 April to 8 November 2026 Open Monuments returns: for months it will be possible to enter for free in places that normally remain closed, often invisible even to those who live a few meters away. It is not a review designed to amaze, but to restore meaning to what we have before our eyes and which we have stopped seeing. We start from Cagliari and cross the entire peninsula, without a hierarchy between large cities and smaller centres, because the point is not where you go but how you look.
The value lies in the people, not in the monuments
The difference compared to any other cultural event lies here: those who tell you about the places are not detached professionals, but students, volunteers, inhabitants. This completely changes the tone. The visits are not perfect, sometimes they are even imperfect, but for this reason they are authentic. They tell you about a neighborhood, about a family memory, about a story that you can’t find in the guidebooks. It is a direct and unfiltered way of relating to heritage, which stops being “thing to see” and becomes something to understand.
A journey into a less predictable Italy
The calendar is long and sparse, and that’s why it works. In May, Sardinia becomes the protagonist with dozens of municipalities involved, while elsewhere emerge destinations that rarely enter the tourist radar: Pinerolo, Benevento, small towns and stratified cities that tell of a less domesticated Italy. Then autumn arrives and the project also moves to large cities such as Rome and Turin, but without ever giving in to the logic of obvious attractions: there too we enter lateral spaces, little talked about, often ignored.
There are accessible routes, initiatives designed for families, artistic and musical activities that transform the visit into something more alive and less static. But above all there is a clear idea: heritage only makes sense if it is shared.
Why participate
At a time when cultural tourism tends to become increasingly standardized, Open Monuments remains one of the few experiences that does not seem to be built on the table. You don’t find glossy itineraries or narratives packaged to please everyone. Instead you find places that are told for what they are, with their contradictions and their stories. And this, today, is much rarer than any open monument.
To stay updated on all Monumenti Aperti initiatives, the Monumenti Aperti app is available as well as the Facebook and Instagram social accounts: at a national level @monumentiaperti, and the accounts dedicated to each city or region of the network.
The updated contents can be consulted on the official website www.monumentiaperti.com.
