A native of Brooklyn, New York, Italia Pennino was the daughter of a popular Italian song composer, an importer of Italian films and a movie theater owner. She married Oscar winner Carmine Coppola and became the matriarch of the famous Coppola family.

She was one of six children of Francesco Pennino and Anna (née Giaquinto), both of Naples, Italy. She was born in an apartment over the family's Empire Theater in Brooklyn. She was the mother of academic August Coppola, filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola and actress Talia Shire, as well as the maternal grandmother of actors Jason Schwartzman, Robert Carmine and writer Matthew Shire, and paternal grandmother of actors Nicolas Cage, Marc Coppola and directors Roman Coppola, Christopher Coppola and Sofia Coppola.

Pennino appeared in two non-speaking roles in her son's movies, One from the Heart and The Godfather Part II. She was known for her Italian cooking and published a cookbook called Mama Coppola's Pasta Book. She is buried in San Fernando Mission Cemetery, alongside her husband. Her image graces a line of pasta and sauces named after her nickname, "Mammarella."