Giuliana Pirone is the big sister of Maria Boitano, the famous Italian opera singer. Although Giuliana comes from a musical-oriented family, her interest were more focused on the fine arts, particularly painting. She is a painter of portraits and landscapes and a teacher in the local art school. She firmly believes that it's important for a painter to feel what he/she paints and take their work seriously and with pride. But as is the curse of all artists, Giuliana has a tendency to hold her expectations of other people's abilities too high, thus she often comes across to others as pushy. And if high expectations didn't cause enough trouble, Giuliana easily gets suspicious of people she doesn't know, a trait just as equally self-destructive as the first (an example is when her second-nephew, Fidget, first comes to visit the Boitano family). But her faulty traits also prove to be blessings, which is why her sister refers to her as "The Family Guard".

Although Giuliana was always a serious girl, she wasn't always so suspicious of people until she first met Maria's first husband, Lucio Boitano. Giuliana sensed something wrong about him from the very beginning, and when her sister informed her of Lucio's abusive behavior (as well as discovering that he was part of the Sicilian mob), her suspicions were confirmed. As the oldest, Giuliana became protective of Maria and convinced her to divorce Lucio. However, that wasn't the only incident that caused Giuliana to behave in a cautious manner. She also met and married a bat named Alfonso Paolo and bore her sole daughter, Linda, four years after Maria's son Rudolfo (Rupert) was born. Similar to the marital fate of her sister, Giuliana was also having problems with Alfonso. Her husband was never around to spend time with her and her daughter. Alfonso's excuse to her that he was working very hard for his wife and child, thus he has been too busy to spend time at home. Although part of her believed his story, Giuliana couldn't help but feel that something else was wrong. While she was going to the market to buy food, Giuliana spotted Alfonso going into a tavern. So she followed him ... and discovered something that was not to her liking. Alfonso was busy alright, but not in the manner he portrayed. Alfonso was amerced in heavy drinking and gambling. And as if this site wasn't displeasing enough, she listened to Alfonso's conversation with his friends and learned a terrible secret: Alfonso was a part of the Sicilian mob who worked for Lucio. Feeling hurt and betrayed, Giuliana divorced her husband. As the growth of the Sicilian mob increased, Giuliana and her family feared the idea of being captured and killed by them. The Boitano's vowed to each other to flee Italy by boat to find a better place to to raise their children. Their travels eventually lead them to Liverpool, England.

Ever since her divorce, Giuliana was left emotionally unprotected. To make up for this insecurity, she became suspicious of any person she came across (including Maria's second husband, Charles Holloway) to avoid any hurt or danger being brought upon the family. Because Maria's second-husband proved to be more loyal and honest with his wife (and everyone else), Giuliana won back half of the confidence she lost. The other half she regained through her undying obsession to paint. But this never wiped away her suspicion of any stranger coming to the house (such as the arrival of Fidget, who had to prove that he was her second-nephew).

Giuliana is the backbone of the Boitano family. Whenever any family member wants sound advice before decision making, she is always there to lead them in the right direction. This demonstrates that deep-down, Giulian is a good-natured woman who always wants only the best for her family.