3rd National "Places of the Heart" Survey - Presentation of Final Results
29 January 2007, Milan

The third edition of the national "Places of the Heart" survey, promoted by FAI in partnership with Intesa Sanpaolo saw a widespread participation with the collection of 120,000 responses, with a thirty-percent increase over the previous edition. This shows that care and concern for the environment are becoming increasingly popular values in Italy.
The initiative, which seeks to make Italians more aware of the environmental heritage of our country through the selection of a "place of the heart" that one would wish to preserve, focused this year on "places of nature".
The success of the initiative stemmed from the strong involvement of Intesa Sanpaolo branches, which promoted it at local level and served as collection points for the survey cards.
The most popular choice was the walled garden of the cloistered Monastery of Saints Gervasius and Protasius, in San Giacomo di Veglia, near Vittorio Veneto in the province of Treviso, with 13,060 votes. The monastery grounds are in danger of being sacrificed for a construction project.
Second place went to the Rocca Borromea park, with 12,987 votes. The park is a rocky outcrop over 100 metres high dominating the shore of Lake Maggiore on the Novara side, behind the town of Arona. It was open to the public until 2002, but has been closed because of security and maintenance problems.
In third place, with 9,072 votes, was Lago Azzurro in Campodolcino, in the province of Sondrio, which has been dry for two years.
Once again, the survey provided an opportunity for spontaneous, collective mobilization in defence of a common good.
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