Alice Hallgarten—a New Yorker by birth who married Baron Leopoldo Franchetti—divided her years in Italy between Rome and Città di Castello, dedicating herself to improving the living conditions of underserved rural and urban communities. Her practical feminism, combined with visionary philanthropy, left a lasting legacy both locally and internationally. In Rome, she took part in the activities of the Unione di San Lorenzo, engaging in social initiatives in the same neighborhood where Maria Montessori then opened her first Casa dei Bambini. In Città di Castello, she founded the Montesca and Rovigliano Rural Schools, established in 1901 and 1902, to provide education for the children of her farmers. Furthermore, she opened Tela Umbra, a weaving workshop still active today, complete with a daycare center where women could have their children taken care of, while at work.

Giuseppe Lombardo Radice wrote of Alice Hallgarten Franchetti that "she worked on her school as if she were responsible for solving the educational problem of every school." In her rural institutions at Montesca and Rovigliano, she gave farmers' children access to globally sourced teaching materials and to the most innovative pedagogical methods of the time. From these schools, educational theorist Giuseppe Lombardo Radice derived the model for the "Calendario della Montesca" and incorporated it into Italy's national curriculum. The Franchettis also inspired Maria Montessori to put her Scientific Pedagogy Method to paper. In 1909, she was their guest at Villa Montesca where they hosted the inauguration of the first course for training teachers in the Montessori Method—led by the Dottoressa herself and held in one of their properties in the nearby town.

In 1910, the schools were awarded a Diplôme d'honneur and a gold medal at the Brussels International and Universal Exposition—a formal testament to Baroness Alice Hallgarten Franchetti's tireless dedication.