In the past few decades, many villages all over Italy have welcomed official murals that, with the colors and imagination of artists and students of the Fine Arts Academies from all over the world, transformed walking in through the alleys into visits to museums.
Arcumeggia (Varese) – Since 1956, this small mountain village known as the “Painters’ Village” offered the external walls of its houses to artists interested in frescoing them. Today it has become an open-air museum where
you can admire works by Giuseppe Montanari; Aldo Carpi; Umberto Faini; Ferruccio Ferrazzi; Francesco Menci; Eugenio Tomiolo; Carmelo Nino Found and many others.
Dozza (Bologna) – Since the first “Biennale of the Painted Wall” in 1965, every two years in September, the medieval village welcomes artists from all over the world who paint on its walls images of dragons and fairies, landscapes, and abstract visions.
Braccano (Macerata) – The colorful paintings found on the houses, walls, and barns in this village on the western slope of Monte San Vicino in the Marche are the work of students of the Fine Arts from the academies of Brera, Urbino, and Macerata, with the participation of artists from all over the world.
Diamante (Cosenza) – In this village, known as “the pearl of the Tyrrhenian”, the tradition of murals was initiated in 1981 by the Milanese painter Nani Razzetti. Since then, the village historical center has been enriched with more than 150 works created by Italian and foreign artists.
Orgosolo (Nuoro) – In the heart of Sardinia, the murals on this village’s walls, dating back to the 1960s, have a political connotation and recount the shepherds’ commitment to the defense of their land and their daily life in Barbagia; many also inspired by a hope for world on peace.
Valloria (Imperia) – Here are the doors of houses, stalls, warehouses, and cellars to grab visitor’s attention. Over the years, dozens of internationally renowned painters and young artists painted about 150 doors, which, with their vivid colors, contrast nicely with the compact gray of the stone walls.