Villa Rezzola is an ancient noble residence built in the eighteenth century and immersed in a large terraced garden that slopes down to the sea, in the area of Lerici-Pugliola, in the province of La Spezia. The villa was bequeathed to FAI in 2020 by Pupa Carnevale Miniati, so that it could be protected, enhanced, and made accessible to all. The new FAI property, Villa Rezzola, overlooks a landscape that symbolizes our country, the “Gulf of Poets,” celebrated among others by Dante, Petrarch, Byron, and Shelley.

The owners of Villa Rezzola in the first three decades of the twentieth century were also English, the Cochrane couple, whose British influence can still be traced in some architectural details and in the splendid garden with its extraordinary botanical variety. The villa is a typical vacation residence of the upper middle class or English aristocracy, who between the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, reached Liguria, from West to East, to escape the harsh temperatures from across the Channel. Here the mild climate allowed them to experiment with plants impossible to grow in England, thus creating a garden rich in rare and exotic species. In addition to their passion for botany, there was the British taste in designing gardens without subjecting nature to a geometric design and offering an image of spontaneity, though guided by a precise aesthetic sense.

Currently, the visiting route includes a portion of the vast garden and some areas of the villa, leading to the terrace overlooking the sea, with a breathtaking view of the Gulf that spans from the castle of Lerici to the island of Palmaria, all the way to the village of Portovenere. While staying at Downtown Blue Apartment, you can visit Villa Rezzola in all its beauty.