'We open our homes to the public and try to involve the youngest'

Looking at the sky in these days between autumn and winter, one encounters groups of starlings drawing unusual and changing shapes, all together. It was also by observing their peculiar flight that Nobel Prize winner Giorgio Parisi developed his theory of complex systems, which takes its cue from a kind of collective intelligence shared by starlings, precisely, but also by bees and some fish. Connected by an invisible network, individuals form something else. A similar organism could be formed by the over 43,000 historical residences dotting the whole of Italy, connected by a common feeling of desires, goals and sometimes even problems. Villas, palaces, convents, agricultural estates, share ancient origins, valuable artistic heritage and interesting histories, between collective culture and personal vicissitudes, and are landmarks for their territories. If for centuries they have been exclusive places in the etymological sense of the term, since they were inaccessible due to census, function, and purpose, for almost 50 years the Association of Italian Historic Houses, which brings together some 8,200 of them, has instead wanted to make them open, centres for sharing those heritages and histories, but above all a driving force for the economy and society of their territories. This is what happened in Bracciano, a town that gives its name to the lake about 50 km from Rome: in the early 1960s, the family of the Odescalchi princes, who have owned the imposing castle overlooking the waters of the lake since the end of the 17th century, decided to open it to the public. It was Prince Livio IV, nephew of the collector Baldassarre, who strongly desired this. At the end of the 19th century, he restored the manor to its former splendour and decided to share the treasures of the family collection, organising one of the first private museums open to the public. Livio's daughter, Princess Maria Pace Odescalchi, lived under the stone vaults part of her life, divided with the family palace in Rome, a treasure trove of art treasures and facing with reserved demeanour the chaotic traffic of Piazza dei Santi Apostoli.

With a degree in Business Administration, she has been managing Bracciano Castle for years, and since last May, the members of the association have appointed her as their president. "Our goal is this," she explains, "to open up even more, to return to being places of dialogue with the territory, with important returns for the territory itself. Let me give you some numbers: historical residences are the largest diffuse museum in Italy, they represent about 17% of our national cultural heritage and more than half of them are located in municipalities with less than 20,000 inhabitants. As such, they are a perfect alternative to the beaten track, a solution to overtourism. In 2024 alone they welcomed over 35 million visitors, hosting more than 210 thousand events, of which over 70 thousand were free. An employment impact equal to 1.2% of the Italian workforce, with 1.9 billion euro invested in the three-year period 2021-2023 and over 900 million in 2024 for restoration and maintenance work. Let me give you an example, just with our castle: every year 75,000 people participate in our events, guided tours, workshops, and to welcome them in the village, restaurants, b&s, craft shops have multiplied, creating an induced activity that was not there before". At Bracciano Castle in 1971, Aldo Moro, then Minister of Foreign Affairs, convened a meeting of his European colleagues, but much more frequent are weddings (one for all, that between Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes in 2006), which for historic residences are a real business: according to data from Bmii - Borsa del Matrimonio in Italia, the most important trade fair in the sector, in 2024 they were the preferred wedding location for foreigners (a turnover of over one billion euros), 13.8% of whom chose villas, palaces and castles for ceremonies and parties. "Let me give you another example: the Castle of Panicale, in Umbria, was bought by an American couple who brought their collection of 120,000 jigsaw puzzles there and made it available to the public by opening a Puzzle Museum". It is precisely in that area, however, that other investments raise barriers to the collective enjoyment of this heritage, as happened with the Procopio Castle, a 12th-century fortress that has become a Mandarin Oriental for a maximum of 16 guests, or the Antognolla Castle, bought by the Emirati tycoon Mohamed Alabbar, founder of Emaar Properties and builder of the Burj Khalifa and the Dubai Mall, with the aim of making it a Six Senses resort: "In any case, I remain of the opinion that it is necessary to incentivise those who invest in Italy," she continues, "to set up a long-term plan and not offer spot measures or support. Often the owners of these dwellings are forced to sell them because the maintenance costs are too high, and changes of use are impossible for listed properties. Let it not be thought that this is a world of enormous riches, ours. Yet, given that these are places of public interest, institutions should provide forms of support and tax relief, for example for restoration work'. At the end of October, Adsi signed a memorandum of understanding with Abi, precisely to facilitate access to credit and encourage investments in restoration, energy efficiency and valorisation for owners of historic residences; and some of the association's members most experienced in managing their assets are making themselves available to colleagues in need.

Historic homes have an important social as well as economic value: the induced income they generate could help repopulate those many, too many Italian territories at risk of depopulation. According to the latest ISTAT data, in our country there are between 1 and 2 million abandoned buildings, equal to 6% of the entire real estate heritage, and of these about 70 thousand are buildings of historical interest. Giving them a future could also mean providing interesting opportunities for young entrepreneurs. The European Association of Historic Houses, to which about 50 thousand residences, including those belonging to Adsi, in 24 European countries belong, recently launched a training course for historic house managers and energy managers: "This world is not far away from the younger generations, on the contrary," notes Odescalchi. Among young people there is a lot of interest in our realities: certainly there are those who just take a selfie in one of the historic gardens, but there are young scholars who are very passionate about the genre. Every year we reserve scholarships for those who conduct studies dedicated to historical residences. But it is also from before that we must start, because exposure, education in beauty, must be promoted starting with children: I would like to work with schools even more than we are already doing. And for 2027, when the association will be 50 years old, I would like to propose a project to also bring contemporary art into our homes'. When the association was founded in Rome by a few members of Italian aristocratic families on 4 March 1977, Italy was going through serious social unrest, the result of a problematic and painful relationship with its past and future history. In today's historic residences, these dimensions seem to find a new, fertile balance: "In addition to being laboratories of innovation, they are places of protection for the present and the past," explains Maria Pace Odescalchi. "They protect local products, from wine to oil, they organise local craft markets, and maintenance requires workers who are familiar with ancient techniques, crafts of excellence that are also at risk of extinction. In this regard, let us return to Bracciano for a moment: his visionary great-grandfather, Baldassarre, asked the craftsmen and workshops in Rome to reproduce antique furnishings, such as a bedroom in neo-Gothic style, and vigorously supported the birth of the Industrial Artistic Museum of Rome, a place that was intended to collect artefacts (glass, ceramics, sculptures, painted fabrics, plaster casts, photographs) from antiquity to the 17th century, and at the same time act as a training school for specialised craftsmen, but which unfortunately was closed in 1956. "It is a thought I often share with Prospero Colonna (neighbour of the princess and owner of the sumptuous family palace, ed): we are custodians, not owners. We are the passage of a long history and we must manage it as best we can, together,' he concludes. The collective intelligence of people and places is in fervent activity.