To avoid her conversion to Catholicism, she was then sent by her father to her maternal relatives in Livorno, a city that allowed freedom of worship for Jews.

[3] The death of her husband in 1859 brought her a substantial inheritance which allowed her to finance Mazzini and his insurrectional activities.

In a letter written to Garibaldi on 19 August 1862, she said that "the homeland is safe if the two men whom Italy loves and esteems above all are united.

To avoid arrest, she and her daughter fled to Lugano, where in August 1865 she bought the villa "La Tanzina" which hosted, in addition to Mazzini, other Italians such as Cattaneo, Bertani and Quadrio.

[citation needed] Mazzini stayed in the villa until 1871, the year in which she returned to Italy under a pseudonym and moved to Pisa in the house of Janet/Giannetta Rosselli, Sara's daughter.

[1] In Rome, she founded the Unione Benefica, a shelter to prevent the spread of prostitution and a secular girls' school in Trastevere and for this reason the target of criticism from many Catholics.