 Alexandra and Guido lived in Venice and Rome and Carla was educated by Roman Catholic nuns, along with her siblings, Anna-Viola and Francesco.Francesco, later known as Francis Dunbar Marshall Malagola (1918–2001), was an artist whose works are conserved in a wide range of European collections and museums.In 1930, Carla and her mother met Major Mervyn Thorneycroft while on holiday on Capri, and later visited his home, Dunston Hall in Staffordshire, where she first met her future second husband, the Major's son, Peter Thorneycroft, newly commissioned in the Royal Artillery.