Cini Foundation

Vittorio Cini had a long relationship with the Italian Fascist party, joining in 1926, and had occupied influential positions within government and industry throughout the decades of Benito Mussolini's rule.

[3] Giorgio would also lobby successfully against the elder Cini's legal exclusion from political activities, arguing that his final break with Mussolini mitigated his long years of collaboration.

[6] The Foundation possess manuscripts and letters of famous persons of the theatrical and literary life of Italy at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth century, including Arrigo Boito, Eleonora Duse, Gabriele D'Annunzio, Giovanni Pascoli, Gian Francesco Malipiero, and Diego Valeri (poet).

The Foundation also is home to the School of San Giorgio for the Study of Venetian Civilisation, an academic center to examine the contributions of the Republic of Venice to civilization.

Filled with valuable art and presenting across the water a view of St. Mark's Square and the Doge's Palace, the place has been visited by heads of state including Jimmy Carter, Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, François Mitterrand, Romano Prodi, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, and King Juan Carlos I of Spain.