Giovanna Palombo was born and raised in Florence, "cradle" of the Renaissance. She graduated from the University of Florence, where she obtained her Laurea in Foreign Languages and Literature with a focus on English and German.

She has taught Italian at the Società Dante Alighieri and at a high school in Austria, where she lived for a year while completing her dissertation. Giovanna has been teaching Italian in San Francisco since 1997.

In addition to teaching, she has a passion for studying languages, travel, and ancient cultures. She was awarded her Master's degree in European history from San Francisco State University in 2006, and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Medieval history at UC Berkeley.