Her father, Renato Poggioli, was the author of The Theory of the Avant-Garde and one of the founders of the anti-fascist Mazzini Society.
[5] In 2005 Poggioli was the featured reporter for the funeral of Pope John Paul II and subsequent conclave.
Poggioli became a favorite reporter of the Magliozzi Brothers on Car Talk, possibly on account of their common Italian ancestry.
[citation needed] They featured her name in a dish on a tongue-in-cheek NPR staff menu, as Sylvia Poggioli Ravioli.
Her husband, Piero Benetazzo, a 1982 Nieman Fellow, died January 11, 2015, at home in Rome 13 months after he was diagnosed with a brain tumor.