Giornate FAI d'Autunno 2026 in Naples: the places open

On Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 October 2026, the Giornate FAI d'Autunno (FAI Autumn Days) are back: across Italy, over 700 places that are usually closed or little known open their doors, showing off heritage that normally stays off the tourist trail. In Naples, FAI (Italy's National Trust) takes visitors inside an art school behind piazza del Plebiscito, a ceramics institute in the Capodimonte park and Villa Rosebery, one of the Italian President's residences, open to the public only a few times a year. Below: what to see in the city, where to go outside Naples by train, and what else is on the same weekend.

When to go and how it works

The openings run both days, usually 10am-6pm, but every site has its own hours: find the latest on the event page for Giornate FAI d'Autunno in Naples, filled in with the Campania programme released on 1 October, the same day we're writing this. You don't need to be a member to get in: the FAI Autumn Days are open to everyone, with a donation supporting the Foundation, usually around 3 euros. FAI members get priority at the busiest sites, and it's worth joining if you think you'll come back for future editions, since membership costs about the same as a couple of paid entries. Unless stated otherwise, you don't need to book: just turn up during opening hours.

The places open in the city

The Polo delle Arti Palizzi, behind piazza del Plebiscito at piazzetta Salazar 6, opens 10am-6pm on both days. The art school takes visitors into its historic workshops for graphics, goldsmithing, metalwork and ceramics, and into the MAI, the school's own industrial art museum, where the tools and models used to teach craft skills since the 1800s are kept. Visits to the workshops are capped, so it's worth arriving early, especially Saturday morning.

Inside the Capodimonte park, the Istituto Caselli opens, the school that trains ceramicists and porcelain restorers. The visit also takes in the Chiesa di San Gennaro, built in the eighteenth century next to the institute and normally closed to the public: a corner of the park most Neapolitans have never seen inside, despite walking past it dozens of times on the way to the museum.

Villa Rosebery, on the Posillipo seafront, started out as a country residence in 1801, changed hands several times, from an Austrian officer to a branch of the Bourbons, until the Earl of Rosebery bought it in 1897 and gave it his name. Since 1957 it's been one of the Italian President's official residences. The grounds, over 66,000 square metres of gardens, orchards and vineyards, mix Mediterranean planting with an English-style garden: the FAI Autumn Days are one of the few chances all year to get inside. Opening hours and how to book your slot come out with the Campania programme on 1 October: check the FAI website before you go, since a presidential residence is likely to have fixed time slots or a different procedure from the other sites.

Outside Naples, reachable by train

If you've got time to widen the circle, two sites in the province are reachable without a car. The Museo Correale di Terranova, in Sorrento, holds the Correale family's collection of paintings, porcelain and period furniture in a palazzo with a garden, a few minutes from the Circumvesuviana station at the end of the Naples-Sorrento line. Villa Campo, in Herculaneum, is a short walk from the Ercolano Scavi Circumvesuviana station, the same one for the archaeological site: you can combine the villa visit with a look round the excavations in the same morning.

The same weekend, in the city and on the coast

Frequently asked questions

For the rest of the free things that come round every month in the city, like Domenica al Museo, you'll find the list in free things to do in Naples. And everything else on this weekend, including the food festivals and concerts that have nothing to do with FAI, is in things to do in Naples this weekend.