Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 February 2023 Villa Necchi Campiglio, Property of the FAI - Fondo per l'Ambiente Italiano ETS in Milan, will host the 11th edition of Agrumi, a weekend to discover citrus fruits and their aromas, colors and flavors. The exhibition, set up between the garden and the covered tennis court of the villa, will allow visitors to get to know a heritage of biodiversity typical of Mediterranean landscapes, while remaining in the heart of the city, and to buy plants, fruits, honeys, flavored beers, perfumes , cosmetics, refined decorations and other products selected on the basis of their quality and particularity: from Sorrento lemons to Savona chinotto; from Calabrian bergamot juices to the Sicilian sweet “Foglia Allegra”, composed of a crunchy on a lemon leaf; from orange marmalade from the Garden of Kolymbethra, a FAI property in the Valle dei Templi (AG), to the rare Sardinian citrus pompia, traditionally used not only for the essential oil extracted from the peel, with medicinal properties, but also for the preparation of sweets ancient, which can be found and tasted in Agrumi.
The 2023 edition will reserve an interesting novelty for the public: walking in the garden, in fact, it will be possible to admire, for the first time at Villa Necchi, the historical collection of citrus fruits from the Serre Comunali of the Villa Reale in Monza, which will be illustrated by Davide Chiaravalli, nurseryman from Monza who rediscovered and valued it. Visitors will be able to discover the collected varieties, some of which were already cultivated in the Medici era, cataloged in 1825 by Giovanni Battista Rossi, one of the great gardeners working in Monza, and recovered starting in 2016. During the two days, Chiaravalli will also be in dialogue with Gianni Simonti, curator of the citrus collection of the Boboli Gardens in Florence.
The weekend will be enriched by various meetings with experts (complete program follows): among the appointments, Giuseppe Barbera, in conversation with the journalist Stefano Salis, will present his book “Citrus fruits. A history of the world”, published by the Saggiatore. Furthermore, the public will be able to appreciate the exhibition of the works of the Catanese painter Fernanda Paternò Castello di Cárcaci dedicated to citrus fruits and the Kolymbethra Garden, with watercolors, scrapbooks, books, prints and museum objects. Finally, among the "gems" not to be missed there will be cheese tastings paired with citrus mustards from Lombardy.
