She was one of the first women in Italy to earn a living as a journalist and a writer, the first female columnist for the leading Italian daily Corriere della Sera, and the author of 45 books.  She called herself Marchesa Colombi, but she had no noble blood in her veins.

Her real name was Maria Antonietta Torriani, and she was born poor in 1840. She decided to adopt the pseudonym Marchesa Colombi so she could more easily challenge conventional thinking. Maria was an extraordinary woman, a witty feminist even before the word existed. Her style was biting and ironic;  her ideas about women, marriage, and social conventions, far ahead of her time.