Over 2,500 visitors for the “FAI Spring Day 2013” The AM Palace, a monumental building built in Rome in the early 1930s to house the then newly formed Air Force and still the institutional headquarters of the Armed Forces, was one of the seven hundred properties opened to the public throughout Italy over the weekend; one of five in the capital, along with the Caserma dei Corazzieri del Quirinale, Palazzo Antonelli, Palazzo Spada and the Romano Aquatorium. Just a few days before the 90th anniversary of the establishment of the Air Force, the act of birth as an independent armed force dates back to March 28, 1923. The initiative with the FAI wanted to highlight the Armed Forces’ sensitivity in pursuing – alongside private citizens, companies, and other concerned institutions – one of the guiding principles that have been the driving force for the FAI for over 35 years and that is among the fundamental articles of the Italian Constitution, namely that of education in the knowledge and protection of the nation’s historical and artistic heritage. During the two days of extraordinary opening, thanks to the support of FAI volunteers, the public was able to visit the historical rooms of the Air Force Palace, the mural paintings and furnishings that characterize them; among these, in particular, the Rooms of the Atlantic Cruises, aviation enterprises of which Italo Balbo, commissioner of the project for the building, was one of the protagonists. A virtual reconstruction of the Palazzo Aeronautica was also presented to the audience in advance, allowing them to “walk” inside and interact with objects and works of art from that era through a faithful reconstruction of the historical rooms. Rai News of 25/03/2013 at 03.25 Rai News of 24/03/13 at 18.44 With FAI discovering the hidden beauty
