Born Cassino, Italy. Was influenced in early years by her father’s interests - he was a scholar in Latin and Greek, with many works on Plutarch, Cicero, Seneca etc., and was fluent in six or seven modern languages… Primary and Secondary Education in Florence (Liceo Classico), Graduated in Classics at the University of Rome. (Major subjects: Sanskrit, Art, Religions and Literatures of Ancient India and the East; Classic Literatures; and Modern Languages, French English and Farsi). Diplôme in French Language and Literature at Lycée Chateaubriand (Rome). French was her first foreign - much loved - language, learnt very early at home, and never forgotten, although later somewhat ‘displaced’ by constant use of English, so that reading and understanding is no problem, while speaking needs about two weeks’ full re-immersion.
1960: Married (too young) and went, with her husband, to Tehran, with a bursary for a two year University course inPersian Studies (Language, Literature, History and Art). Travelled extensively in Iran, visited Lebanon, Turkey.
1963-64: Lived, studied, and travelled in West Africa - Ghana, Nigeria, Togo, Dahomey-. Daughter Raffaella born in Lagos in 1963.
1964-67: Back in Italy, Rome: a son, Giovanni, was born in 1964. Started teaching in State Schools in 1967, gained her eaching Degree in English (EFL) Language and Literature, and taught at a Liceo Scientifico in Rome until 1980. Worked on TEFL issues, attending and giving classes and seminars in teachers’ training courses (Florence 1972, 1975; Rome, 1976, 1979). Managed, in spite of it all, to keep alive and pursue her old interests in Indian and Persian studies.
1980-82: Joined second husband, Roy McWeeny, in Sheffield, UK; gave a series of lectures on Persian Civilization (‘Crossroads of Civilizations: Persia’) for the Department of Continuing Education, University of Sheffield, whilst working on a Research project in Linguistics (Dept. of English Studies).
1981- Returned to Italy on her husband’s appointment to Chair of Theoretical Chemistry at University of Pisa; resumed teaching and EFL teachers’ training conferences and seminars (Pisa 1986, Viterbo 1992, Catania 1994).
1991-93: seconded (by MPI, Italian Ministry of Education) to Facoltà di Lingue e Letterature Straniere deIl'Università della Tuscia (Viterbo) for seminars and research projects in Didattica delle Lingue Straniere (English). Has acted as interpreter at various Scientific Meetings.
On retiring from school teaching, has attended courses in Oxford; currently collaborates with English Linguistics, in the Dipartimento di Anglistica (Dept. of English Studies) in Pisa; has given (1998-2001) series of seminars and lectures on the Lexicon, Historical Semantics, Vocabulary and Gender.
Active member of ‘Associazione Casa della Donna’ di Pisa (Women’s Association) works on women’s social issues, and on women’s literature (currently on writer Patricia Highsmith). At the moment is preparing a seminar on ‘Invisible Bodies: the physical representation of heroines in some English women novelists of late Eighteenth and early Nineteenth Centuries’.
Publications include articles on TEFL issues; an anthology of extra-European English Literature ‘In their Own Words’ (Loescher); Teaching Development Issues series (Pacini ed. per La Provincia di Pisa); ‘On the Writing of Diaries’; work in hand, ‘Persian Mystic Poets’. Has translated from English ‘A Man’s Woman’ (Frank Norris); from Italian into English: ‘The sociological Spirit’ (Mario Aldo Toscano), ‘Satanism and the Law’ (Michele C. Del Re); is currently translating -from English- a book on an Italian Baroque musician.
Likes books, films, visual arts, and cooking, as well as being with friends and travelling. Goes to England as often as possible.