Villino Douhet

The Villino Bisini-Douhet, set in the Umbertine area of the Prati district in Rome, was first designed by engineer Scipione Regnoli at the behest of Romeo Bisini with a construction permit dated August 3, 1898, and later enlarged and elevated by engineer Francesco Imperiali in August 1923 for Giulio Douhet, an aviation theorist. This building is universally known as "Villino Douhet" because, since the early 1920s, General Giulio Douhet (May 30, 1869 - February 14, 1930) lived there. After he died suddenly on Feb. 14, 1930, struck down by a heart attack while cultivating roses in the garden of his Cecchina estate in Albano Laziale (near Rome), his widow Teresa Casalis, called Gina by everyone, daughter of Senator Bartolomeo, having had no children, on June 21, 1955, by public deed arranged for the little villa to be bequeathed, by testamentary bequest, to the Air Force, to have it used primarily as the site of an Aeronautical Military Studies Center and other technical and professional activities, reserving some rooms for the Gold Medals for Aeronautical Valor and Military Valor group. For the past 40 years, the graceful building with garden, located in Rome, Via Marcantonio Colonna No. 23/25, has been the headquarters of the National Presidency of the Associazione Arma Aeronautica - Aviatori d'Italia and of the Associations with an aeronautical character: Pioneers, Atlantic Crossers and Air Force Officers.