Drivers racing along Italian motorways this weekend will be asked to slow down and make a pit stop at cultural sites they usually speed past without a second thought for Italy's annual European Heritage Days.
People who pull over for petrol at service stations across the country will be met by staff singing the praises of nearby castles, churches and ancient burial grounds that are easily accessible from the motorway network.
Although drivers will still have to fork out for motorway tolls, around 200 monuments will open for free over the two-day period in the hope of enticing long-distance truckers and weekend day trippers to take a look.
The Ministry of Culture, the Italian National Trust (FAI) and Motorways for Italy has organised the initiative in order to target the 4 million people who travel the 3,408 kilometres of roads run by Motorways for Italy every day.
"Our national motorways shouldn't just be seen as a means of getting from point A to point B in the fastest time possible because there's so much to see in between," Motorways For Italy CEO Giovanni Castellucci said.
Travelling on the A1 motorway in Tuscany alone drivers will have the chance to detour to 22 different sites open for the occasion including the fourth-century BC Etruscan Tomb of the Infernal Chariot at Sarteano, the tenth-century Porciano Castle, and the Church of St John the Baptist - better known as the Motorway Church - designed by Giovanni Michelucci and built in 1963 in a service station just north of Florence.
Special emphasis has been placed on 20th-century gems, including the sailboat-like Dives in Misericordia Church, designed by American architect Richard Meier in 2003 and accessible from Exit 16 on Rome's ring road.
The Church of Santa Maria Annunciata in Chiesa Rossa on the outskirts of Milan will also open its doors with guided tours of the permanent installation of coloured neon tubes created by American minimalist artist Dan Flavin in 1996.
"The Italians just aren't sufficiently conscious of the riches we possess in this country, especially outside the big cities," FAI Director Giulia Maria Mozzoni Crespi said.
"Thanks to the motorways we can access hundreds of monuments that are not well known, and we should create permanent tourist routes around them," she added.
In addition to the 200 sites near the motorway network, around 800 galleries, museums, monuments and state archives will open for free in Italian cities over the two days.
Among the highlights are behind-the-scenes visits to one of the country's largest conservation and restoration laboratories at the National Archaeological Museum in Naples and guided tours of the 6th-century Byzantine mosaics of the Church of Sant'Apollinare in Classe in Ravenna.
In Genoa, the weekend will also provide the first glimpse into the Apartment of the Duke of the Abruzzi, a set of rooms in the Palazzo Reale never opened to the public before.
Built in 1650, the apartment is named after one of its last historic residents, the explorer, mountaineer and admiral Luigi Amedeo, Duke of the Abruzzi.
Son of King Amedeo I of Spain and nephew of King Umberto I of Italy, the Duke lost two fingers to frostbite during an unsuccessful trip to the North Pole and died in Somalia in 1933.
European Heritage Days were launched by the Council of Europe in 1991, and Italy has taken part since 1995. Last year the event saw over 20 million people visiting 30,000 monuments, sites and museums across Europe.
"European Heritage Days represent the most important event dedicated to the cultural heritage of our continent and its objective is to share a sense of common belonging," Deputy Premier and Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli said.
As well as allowing members of the public a sneak peek into private art collections and ongoing restorations of some of the nation s treasures, the weekend will offer gastronomy tours, concerts, performances and cinema screenings.
"With hundreds of sites in every region showing off their beauty, history and culture, Italy will be transformed into a great outdoor theatre for the weekend," Rutelli added.
