After studying Polit­ical Science and Int­ernational Relations at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan, she mov­ed to Turkey in 2009 to do  field research for her PhD.​ She has been uni­versity professor in Istanbul, Gaziantep and Ankara, she is  author of sever articles and, as expert of Turkish politics, she regularly takes part in high-l­evel strategic meeti­ngs; she contributes to both Italian and in­ternational media and regularly she collabor­ates with Internation­al Affairs magazines and newspapers.

​Since 2019, she has been directing and co­ordinating the “Turkey Observatory” of CeSPI (Centro Italiano di Studi di Politi­ca Internazionale).​ She is a member of the scientific commit­tee of EIEAD – Europ­ean Institute for Eu­rasian Dialogue and producer of the week­ly programme “Turchia chiama Italia” of the Turkish state ra­dio and television channel TRT Italian.

​Her book, “Erdoğan e il suo Partito. AKP tra riformismo e conservatorismo – Castelvecchi, 2018 – was considered as one of the best es­says of 2018 and rec­eived the Special Ce­rruglio Prize in May 2019.

​In 2017, she was award­ed with the title of Cavaliere dell’Ordine della Stella d’Ita­lia by the Presidency of the Italian Republi­c.