Hundreds of girls and boys, a splendid day, with them as protagonists: the FAI guides. The ceremony for the awarding of certificates to the “cicerone apprentices” of the schools in the city and province of Messina took place yesterday in San Placido Calonerò. Over 1350 students were involved during the FAI Autumn Days 2025, the School Days 2025 and the Spring Days 2026.
The certificates were received by the students who oversaw the visits to the Lanterna del Montorsoli (October 2025), the 17 openings of sites dedicated to schools (November 2025), and the three openings of the 2026 Spring Days, which featured, in addition to the Benedictine Monastery of San Placido Calonerò, also the Scala di Patti Castle and the village of Casalvecchio Siculo. What is most striking is the enthusiasm of the students, confirming that the initiatives of the Italian Environment Fund represent a great street event dedicated to the valorisation of the cultural and landscape heritage of our country and our region. A mission, that of FAI, which has lasted since 1975.
Pandolfino: “A moment that recognizes authentic growth that goes beyond the school project”
Nico Pandolfino, head of the Fai delegation from Messina, in his speech, after thanking the metropolitan city, the school directors, the teachers and the parents, addressing the students, said: «The delivery of the certificates is not a simple formality, but certifies the skills acquired: from the ability to speak in public to the awareness of the value of the territory and the need to protect it. This moment recognizes, above all, authentic growth that goes beyond the school project. Today we celebrate your active participation: you were not simple passers-by, but narrators of our heritage, capable of transforming study into a conscious civil commitment. You didn’t just study dates or names; you have taken charge of the beauty of your territory. You have lent your voice to a place, allowing many citizens to discover it with new eyes. Being an “apprentice guide” means understanding that culture is not closed in a book, but is something alive that must be shared. You have demonstrated that passion is contagious and that beauty, to be such, needs someone who knows how to tell it: a real passing of the baton, a bridge between history and the future.”
Pandolfino then thanked the members of the FAI Delegation of Messina: Letizia Frisone, Pepa Zappardino, Maria Grazia Gemelli, Stefania Davì, Elena Franchina, Federica Fazio, Marco Azzaro, Marco Belcore, Chiara Milone, Antonella Nuccio, Roberto Ripepi, Francesco Marletta, Francesca Galimi, Leone Saija, Volker Brozio and Julia Brozio and all the volunteers who make the many initiatives organized by Delegation.
Special thanks also to UniPegaso Messina, with which a partnership has been launched which will see the creation of a series of cultural events already scheduled for the next academic year. Nanni Ricevuto, president of UniPegaso Messina, expressed his happiness, in reference to the cloisters of the Monastery of San Placido, for the reopening of a place dear to him, which saw the first restoration interventions precisely in the period in which he was president of the regional Province. He then focused on the desire to support the FAI Delegation of Messina, in the shared project of «creating together events of high cultural and educational value, aimed at rediscovering and enhancing the immense identity heritage of our territory, offering citizens and students new opportunities for beauty and knowledge».
The FAI Days were created thanks to the collaboration with the Bios association, the Metropolitan City, MariFari Sicilia and the Municipalities of Casalvecchio Siculo and Patti, with the patronage of the Municipality of Messina and the subsidiaries Amam, Atm, Messinaservizi and Messina Social City. And again the Italian Blind Union and the Helen Keller Regional Center; the Giostra Philharmonic Orchestra; the regional Department of Civil Protection; the Italian Red Cross (Committees of Messina, Roccalumera-Taormina and Tirreno-Nebrodi); the National Carabinieri Association; Agesci, Masci Scout, Cisom and the many voluntary and civil protection associations that provide support during the visits.