Born in Padua, Gardini was a popular TV presenter,[5] stage and screen actress.

[5] In 2004 Gardini was appointed spokesperson of Forza Italia (FI), with which she was elected to the Regional Council of Veneto in 2005 and to the Chamber of Deputies in 2006.

In 2008 she was the first of the non-elected candidates in the 2008 general election (Gardini entered in the Chamber of Deputies in July 2010, but resigned because she was MEP at that time).

Gardini was once again re-elected in the 2014 election and was subsequently appointed leader of the new Forza Italia (formerly PDL) in the European Parliament, but in April 2019 Gardini left Silvio Berlusconi's FI to join Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy (FdI) because "Antonio Tajani (the Vicepresident of Berlusconi's FI) transformed Forza Italia (FI) into the 'clone' of the Democratic Party (PD) and this is not acceptable for me".

Gardini was not re-elected[9] in the European election in May 2019 and her former seat was passed to Sergio Berlato.