[1][2] Franchi learned from her father, a follower of Giuseppe Mazzini, to love the Risorgimento heroes, those who were part of the popular movement to consolidate the independent states on the Italian peninsula into the single entity to form a new Kingdom of Italy.

Much later, Franchi wrote in her book, My Life, about the feeling of accompanying Martini on the piano, saying that it was the illusion of "Two personalities, two intellects that merged into one expression.

Soon, Martini moved to Philadelphia taking with him his two oldest sons, Cesare and Gino, leaving Franchi in Italy with the youngest boy and in debt; the family's fortunes had collapsed with the death of her father.

According to the law of that time, she was unable to sell her goods without her husband's authorization, so she became a writer to improve her fortunes and properly support her mother and child.

[2] As Franchi wrote in My Life, "Finding work was not an easy thing, and the need urgent […] And yet it was necessary, and yet I wanted with my hands, with my will, with the money earned by me, to make my family live.

[2] She wrote many short stories and novels for children, including the work that is considered her best, The Journey of a Lead Soldier, published by Salani in 1901 with illustrations by Carlo Chiostri, which met with considerable success.

[2] In a parallel effort to make money, Franchi began working as a French translator with challenging texts, including: The Diary of a Chambermaid by Octave Mirbeau, A Life by Guy de Maupassant, and The Prejudice of Isabella by M. Maryan.

[1] In 1909, Franchi's son Gino Martini returned from the U.S. to live with her in Milan, where she had moved permanently in 1906, and together they became passionate followers of Filippo Corridoni's irredentist ideas to reclaim lost Italian territories from the Austrians.

[1][2] In the 1920s, Franchi published the novels Alla Catena (1922) and La Torta di Mele (1927), the historical essay Caterina de 'Medici (1932), as well as theatrical texts and stories for children.