Writer, art critic, curator, professor. While Volpi was born in Macerata to Dante and Matilde Andreani and spent almost her entire life living in Rome. She attended the Guilio Cesare high school in Rome while taking courses at the Accademia d’Arte drammatica Silvio d’Amico (Silvio d’Amico Academy of Dramatic Arts) where she became interested in the Italian Communist Party. In 1952, she graduated from the Università “La Sapienza” di Roma writing her M.A. in Philosophy entitled Il pensiero politico di Pellegrino Rossi (The political thought of Pellegrino Rossi).

The 'father' of modern Tibetan studies.