Welcome to Friends of FAI
Friends of FAI is a 501c3 charity that works in the United States to foster awareness and appreciation of Italy’s cultural heritage through special events and lectures and supports restoration projects for places of outstanding beauty and significance. It also organizes visits to Italy that give privileged and exclusive access to homes, people and collections.
Friends of FAI supports the work of the Italian charity FAI – Fondo per l’Ambiente Italiano (the National Trust for Italy) which takes care of special properties.
Click here to discover the beauty and uniqueness of the places FAI takes care of.
Annual project
Villa Rezzola
Villa Rezzola is a magestic home surrounded by a large and lush terraced garden. Documented as early as the 18th century, the Villa stands on medieval remains of military origin and was gradually expanded and remodeled over the next two centuries. In 1900 it was purchased by Helen Lavinia and William Percy Cochrane, who were responsible for much of its transformation. In 1935, the property passed to Countess Mara Braida Carnevale and then to her daughter Maria Adele, who lived here with her husband Piero Gualberto Miniati.
It was Piero and Maria who decided to bequeath Villa Rezzola to FAI so that it would be protected, enhanced and made accessible to many visitors.” The interior tells the untold and fascinating story of those who inhabited the villa: from the Ligurian nobles Orazio and Elisa Botti, to the wealthy English Cochrane couple, to German Captain Rudolf Jacobs during World War II, to Maria Carnevale Miniati, who lovingly preserved it until her death in the winter of 2020.
From the terraces of the house there is an exceptional view of the Gulf of Poets, which sweeps from Lerici to Portovenere and which, since the 19th century, has won the hearts of a large number of writers and artists, from Shelley and Byron to Lawrence.
Latest news
FAI’s 2022 Annual Report
Discover our membership options and join the Friends of FAI community
Social wall
