She was the daughter of the Italian painter Filadelfo (Philadelphus) Simi (1849–1923), himself a student of the French academician Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824–1904).
[1] She spent eight years under her father’s tutelage at his Florentine atelier The International Studio on Via Tripoli[1] where, even as a child, she had assisted him preparing pencils, mixing colours and helping students.
[2] She taught drawing in Florence at the Istituto delle Montalve, called La Quiete (a villa once belonging to a branch of the Medici family), while continuing to assist her father in his studio.
The Florentine painter Pietro Annigoni (1910–1988) considered Simi “the greatest drawing teacher of the 20th century.” [1] She spent summers in Stazzema, a small town in the foothills of the Apuane Alps, where she often had a following of students.
[3] In 2014 the municipality of Stazzema renamed a public piazza for her and celebrated the event with a temporary exhibition of work by her former students.