Who we are

The A.D.S.I. Youth Group is part of the Associazione Dimore Storiche Italiane  and pursues the same aims as the Association: to safeguard, conserve and enhance a historic house.

It is present throughout Italy and structured into a National Coordination with a National Coordinator; there are currently more than 400 members, aged between 18 and 35.

The aim is to provide future owners of listed buildings and parks with the know-how necessary to manage and enhance a private cultural asset, interacting with institutions and public and private companies, and organising targeted events.

On a regular basis, each youth section organises in-depth studies to meet the need for knowledge and understanding of the fiscal, legal, historic-artistic and environmental aspects of managing a property, while also offering the possibility of “on-site” actions involving visits and discussions with owners and experts in the field.

The support of the Youth Group is particularly evident every year on the occasion of the A.D.S.I. National Day, usually held on the second to last weekend of May, when the courtyards and gardens of historic palaces and villas are open to the public free of charge.

The main social event for the Young People's Group is the National Rally, organised each year in a different region. Members of the young people's sections from all over Italy take part in this to discuss and study subjects related to communication and possible business scenarios for a listed building. National Workshops are also held to deal with issues relating to the digital promotion of heritage both on-line and off-line.

Thanks to the contribution of each section and of the National Coordination, the Youth Group is constantly evolving and is an active presence not only in Italy but also in Europe by participating, as a flagship group, in the initiatives of the Next Generation group within the European Historic Houses Association based in Brussels.

During the presidency of Niccolò Pasolini dall'Onda, the first meeting of the new Youth Group was held in October 1989 at Palazzo Doria Pamphili in Rome and attended by some twenty young people, including: Agnese Mazzei, Sveva and Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco, Simone Rucellai, Alessandro Sacchetti and Andrea Serlupi Crescenzi; during which Agnese Mazzei was appointed Coordinator. At that time, the youth groups were mainly concerned with involving young people in the events organised by the Association, supporting its activities.

They gradually began organising activities for their contemporaries, with visits to Members’ homes and the drafting of information booklets on the historic and artistic heritage of villas and palaces. It was a moment of gathering and stimulus to educate younger members and arouse greater interest in the private artistic heritage.

Thanks to the support of Ippolito Bevilacqua Ariosti, who followed its development from the very beginning, a network of youth delegations was set up in the regions of Italy.

The first was that in Florence with Agnese Mazzei, followed a few months later by the Lazio section with Patrizia Memmo Ruspoli and Emanuela Varano Pinzari, Emilia with Gianluca Garagnani and Marche with Giovanni Baldeschi.

The youth delegations not only organised trips and excursions but also conferences, publications and concerts, coordinating activities that sometimes involved two or more regions.

NATIONAL COORDINATION AND OPEN COURTYARDS

In 1994, Federico Lalatta Costerbosa from Milan convened the first National Coordination of the Youth Group and set up the Cortili Aperti (Open Courtyards) event; Gaetano Barbiano di Belgiojoso was President.

The event was held at the same time in various Italian cities and was a great success and widely reported in the press.

The following year the Courtyards were organised in many more cities and more than 100 were opened. That year the event also involved Rome, with the then A.D.S.I. Lazio Regional Manager Andrea Serlupi Crescenzi, who drew inspiration from the initial experience in Lombardy. But the event is national and the Courtyards also opened in Florence, Lecce, Palermo, Catania, Brescia, Bologna and Milan. In 1998, Aimone di Seyssel d'Aix was President of the Association and Andrea Serlupi Crescenzi began his first term as National Coordinator of the Youth Group, continuing with the organisation of the Open Courtyards and National Youth Rallies and helping consolidate the National Coordination Committee by means of numerous meetings.

THE FIRST DECADE OF THE 21ST CENTURY

Under President Aldo Pezzana Capranica del Grillo, Gilberto Cavagna di Gualdana became the fourth National Coordinator of the Youth Group in 2003.

Two important initiatives were undertaken for the growth and development of the Youth Group during his term of office. The first was to give impetus, through the organisation of technical sessions, to the creation of the Association's new website; the second, given the increase in the number of young Members and initiatives undertaken by the youth delegations, was to update the 1994 Youth Group Regulations, to adapt them to the new requirements and improve the organisation of activities and discipline of relations. The new Youth Group Regulations were approved in Florence in 2006. Valérie Bossi Fedrigotti, founder of the A.D.S.I. Trentino-Alto Adige Youth Group, succeeded Gilberto Cavagna di Gualdana in 2007, actively pursuing the initiatives promoted by the various Sections and further expanding the youth membership base.

THE RALLIES

The National Rally, like the Assembly of Members, is the annual appointment that marks the associative life of the A.D.S.I.'s young people. Conceived as informal gatherings of young Members, over the years the rallies have become more and more structured and regular until taking on the nature of real events, thanks to the increasingly consistent programmes and participation of Members from all over Italy. The rallies have been held in numerous places during the Youth Group's twenty-three years, organised each time by different youth delegations at both a national and regional level, including: Veneto, Basilicata, Lombardy, Apulia, Trentino, Udine, Palermo, Rome, Lucca, Catania, Turin, Naples, Verona, Florence and, in 2012, in conjunction with the 35th Assembly of Members, again in Rome.

Since then, the Youth Group has been led by:

2010/2016 Aloisia Marzotto Caotorta
2016/2019 Giulia Lechi 
2019/2022 Alessandro Cavazza 

Anna Maria Pentimalli was elected National Coordinator of the Youth Group on 24 May 2022.

A.D.S.I. Youth Group, to safeguard, conserve and enhance ancient Italian palaces and historic houses

The A.D.S.I. Youth Group is part of the Associazione Dimore Storiche Italiane  and pursues the same aims as the Association: to safeguard, conserve and enhance a historic house.

It is present throughout Italy and structured into a National Coordination with a National Coordinator; there are currently more than 400 members, aged between 18 and 35.

The aim is to provide future owners of listed buildings and parks with the know-how necessary to manage and enhance a private cultural asset, interacting with institutions and public and private companies, and organising targeted events.

On a regular basis, each youth section organises in-depth studies to meet the need for knowledge and understanding of the fiscal, legal, historic-artistic and environmental aspects of managing a property, while also offering the possibility of “on-site” actions involving visits and discussions with owners and experts in the field.

The support of the Youth Group is particularly evident every year on the occasion of the A.D.S.I. National Day, usually held on the second to last weekend of May, when the courtyards and gardens of historic palaces and villas are open to the public free of charge.

The main social event for the Young People's Group is the National Rally, organised each year in a different region. Members of the young people's sections from all over Italy take part in this to discuss and study subjects related to communication and possible business scenarios for a listed building. National Workshops are also held to deal with issues relating to the digital promotion of heritage both on-line and off-line.

Thanks to the contribution of each section and of the National Coordination, the Youth Group is constantly evolving and is an active presence not only in Italy but also in Europe by participating, as a flagship group, in the initiatives of the Next Generation group within the European Historic Houses Association based in Brussels.

The Members of the Associazione Dimore Storiche Italiane Youth Group are under thirty-five years of age and come into one of the categories referred to in Article 5 of the Statute. The Group’s activity is carried out in accordance with the principles and objectives of the A.D.S.I. and its organs and in compliance with its Statute and regulations. It is divided into Regional Youth Groups whose boundaries coincide with the regional A.D.S.I. Sections.

National Coordinator
Anna Maria Pentimalli coordinatoregiovani@adsi.it

Deputy Coordinator 
Luigi de Benedetto 

Regional Managers 
A.D.S.I. Abruzzo – Carlo Ferdinando de Nardis
A.D.S.I. Campania – Luisa de Notaristefani 
A.D.S.I. Emilia-Romagna – Enrico Vittori 
A.D.S.I. Friuli-Venezia Giulia – Antonio del Torre
A.D.S.I. Lazio – Livia Gasparri 
A.D.S.I. Liguria – Lodovico Gavotti 
A.D.S.I. Lombardia – Annamaria Caronna
A.D.S.I. Marche – Maria Solange de Luca
A.D.S.I. Piemonte e Valle d’Aosta – Costanza Michelini
A.D.S.I. Puglia – Luigi de Benedetto 
A.D.S.I. Sicilia Orientale– Enrica D'Avola
A.D.S.I. Sicilia Occidentale – Emilia Foderà 
A.D.S.I. Toscana – Raffaello Bonacchi 
A.D.S.I. Umbria – Francesco Canali 
A.D.S.I. Veneto – Eleonora Porcellato