[1] Along with her sister, she turned to fencing, the town's national sport: led by maestro Ezio Triccoli, Club Scherma Jesi produced Olympic champions Stefano Cerioni, Giovanna Trillini and Valentina Vezzali.

In 2013 Di Francisca took part in the ninth edition of Ballando con le stelle, the Italian version of Dancing with the Stars.

[3] Di Francisca is involved in several campaigns to end violence against women, testifying from her own experience of an abusive relationship when she was in high school.

[4][5] After the 2012 Summer Olympics she visited Kenya as part of a campaign by NGO Intervita Onlus to help underprivileged children and women.

She began taking part in international competitions, winning a bronze medal at the 2001 Junior World Cup event in Lyon.

These results caused her to be drafted as a reserve in the senior national team composed of Margherita Granbassi, Giovanna Trillini and Valentina Vezzali.

She made her World Championships début at the New York event held on the sidelines of the 2004 Summer Olympics for women's team foil and sabre.

She claimed her first individual European medal in İzmir, a silver, after defeating fellow Italian Claudia Pigliapoco [it] in the semi-finals, but losing to Russia's Yana Ruzavina in the final.

[9] At the 2006 World Fencing Championships held on home ground in Turin Di Francisca lost again in the quarter-finals, this time to teammate Vezzali.

In the team event director of foil Andrea Magro [d] called Di Francisca in the quarter-finals against France to replace Granbassi, who was still emotional after having won the individual world title.

[13] In the team event Italy met Russia in the final and took revenge for the lost match in Torino by defeating them 45–33, including a 5–0 bout by Di Francisca against Shanayeva.

At the European Championships in Leipzig she defeated Errigo in the quarter-finals, but lost to Russia's Yevgeniya Lamonova in the semi-finals and came away with a bronze medal.

Despite a good 8–5 start by Errigo, who had just eliminated Vezzali, Di Francisca levelled up on 9–9 and proceeded to win 15–11, claiming her first individual World title.

[15] In 2010–11 season Di Francisca earned a medal in six out of the seven World Cup events in which she took part, including two golds in Seoul and Tauberbischofsheim.

After being led for the first two periods, Di Francisca levelled the score and hit twice in the last ten seconds to win the bout 10–8 and claim her first continental title.

After a slow start Di Francisca built a 7–3 lead in the second period, but Errigo managed to come back and the bout went into overtime with 11 all.

Defending champion Russia offered less resistance than expected and Italy prevailed 45–31, allowing Di Francisca a double gold haul.

At the European Championships in Zagreb she inflicted a 15–5 defeat to Errigo in the quarter-finals and eventually won the continental title after prevailing against Russia's Diana Yakovleva.

She dedicated her victory to motorcycle racer and fellow Jesi dweller Alessia Polita [d], who had just been critically injured during practice for the Italian championship at Misano.

The bout was marked by an incident similar to that of their London Olympic encounter: during a collision Di Francisca struck a hard blow to Golubytskyi's mask with her bell guard, sending her opponent stumbling.

[26] At the World Championships in Kazan Di Francisca had a tight 15–14 victory over Egypt's Eman Shaaban, then reached easily the quarter-finals.

In the 2014–15 season Di Francesca earned a silver medal in the Turin Grand Prix after losing 7–15 to Arianna Errigo in the final.