The daughter of a rich Greek merchant, she was born in Livorno, Tuscany and grew up in the Greek community there. She spoke Greek, French and Italian. Palli wrote tragedies, dramas, short stories, romantic novels and poems. In 1851, she published a feminist essay targeted at young mothers "Discorso di una donna alle giovani maritote del suo paese". One of the themes in her work was the Greek struggle for independence from the Turks. She married the Italian politician Giampaolo Bartolomei.