Marini studied classic guitar with Andrés Segovia and in 1959 she graduated at the Conservatorio Santa Cecilia in Rome.

In the early 1960s she befriended artists and writers who were passionate about Italian popular traditions, such as Pier Paolo Pasolini, Dario Fo, Italo Calvino and Roberto Leydi.

The couple relocated for a few years in Boston, an experience that will later inform Giovanna Marini's 1966 album Vi parlo dell'America (Let me tell you about America).

An ardent communist, Marini identified in contemporary folk music the perfect vehicle to express her political ideas.

Over the course of her career Marini wrote many protest song lyrics (many of them sung by fellow musician Paolo Pietrangeli), embracing the themes of social justice that characterized the Italian '68 period[1] and other political issues.