Villa Rezzola is a historic mansion with an extensive park and a long, fascinating history. Documented since the 16th century, it was home to local nobility in the 19th century. In 1900, it was purchased by a wealthy English couple, the Cochrane family, who transformed the villa to reflect their style and, most notably, reshaped the park into a typical English garden—a characteristic it still preserves today. In 1935, the villa was sold to Countess Mara Braida Carnevale. It briefly entered the pages of Great History during World War II when requisitioned by the military, first as the Italian command headquarters under Aimone d'Aosta Savoia, then under the German naval captain Rudolf Jacobs, who sided with the partisans and died a hero of the Resistance near Sarzana.

The Countess Carnevale’s daughter, Maria Adele Carnevale—known as Pupa—lived there with her husband, Piero Miniati.

In 2020, she bequeathed the villa to FAI “to ensure its restoration, enhancement, and public access,” supported by a generous endowment including real estate assets in Rome and Lerici to guarantee its upkeep.

Preserving a Historic Garden

FAI embraced this precious legacy because Villa Rezzola, beyond the beauty of its villa and garden and its breathtaking setting, stands as a historical monument reflecting an era—the British presence on the Gulf of Poets—that profoundly influenced the architecture and English-style gardens of Riviera villas. These unique properties and landscapes are unparalleled worldwide.

For FAI, Villa Rezzola underscores the cultural and environmental importance of conserving historic gardens. Such gardens are not just pleasant places to visit; they are educational spaces that highlight how garden care is a cultural practice rooted in knowledge, passion, technique, creativity, style, and tradition—always with an eye toward the present.

Caring for a garden, no matter how small, teaches us respect and consideration for the greater “planetary garden” that is our environment.

A Typical English Riviera Garden

Villa Rezzola is a historic garden, a living document and monument. Like many villas in eastern and western Liguria, it tells the story of an interesting migration phenomenon: the 19th-century arrival of a certain English bourgeoisie who settled on the Ligurian Riviera. Inspired by travelers and artists—early pioneers included English poets such as Byron and Shelley, after whom the Gulf of Poets is named—these settlers praised the mild year-round climate and the lush, romantically wild, and exotic landscapes.

The English left their mark primarily through gardens, which were a symbol of English nobility architecture, a fashionable custom embraced across social classes, and a reflection of a culture blending romanticism for nature with botanical collecting, fueled by expeditions to the British Empire’s colonies.

Villa Rezzola’s garden is a quintessential English garden on the Riviera: a unique blend of the spontaneous, luxuriant Italian Mediterranean landscape—woods and terraced cultivation—and a variety of exotic and tropical species that thrive in the mild Riviera climate, where in England they would survive only in greenhouses.

The result is an original garden, as diverse as a botanical collection and as enchanting as a natural landscape. It artfully combines formal Italian garden elements—lawns, hedges, flowerbeds, and avenues (including a 150-meter-long wisteria pergola)—with informal woodland paths winding through wild, naturalistic areas where water lilies, staircases, and grand viewpoints overlook glimpses of the surrounding landscape.

Characteristic of this garden, showcasing the British expertise, are the infrastructures designed for efficient, sustainable management: a large greenhouse, a shade house (ombrarium), a seedbed now hosting 18 photovoltaic panels, and a sophisticated water system that captures, stores, and distributes water through canals connected to tanks, cisterns, and fountains, optimizing irrigation and ornamental features typical of English gardens.

The Garden Restoration

With an investment of approximately €2,300,000—supported by a €2,000,000 grant from the PNRR program "Programs to Enhance the Identity of Places: Parks and Historic Gardens"— FAI has restored and upgraded 1.5 hectares of the green areas surrounding the villa, which are now open to visitors once again.

In addition, €1,200,000 was invested to restore balustrades, staircases, and belvederes, adapt the entrance house for the ticket office and shop, set up other visitor and cultural services, secure the villa’s exterior, and illuminate the garden.

Among the results: 400 meters of pergolas restored, 18 stone and brick staircases rebuilt, 12 pools and fountains reactivated, and over 8,000 flowers, shrubs, and trees planted. The project involved more than 20 professionals—from agronomists to archaeologists—and over 50 specialized workers, completed in 17 months.

This challenging and extensive work now allows visitors to fully appreciate the beauty and history of one of the Riviera di Levante’s most extraordinary gardens.

FAI is already fundraising to launch a new phase of restoration that will complete the park’s refurbishment over the coming years, focusing on the villa’s interiors—from plants and decorations to collections of furniture, objects, and documents—and adding new recreational and cultural services to enrich visitor experience and increase the value of this exceptional property for FAI and Italy.