Born in Akron, Rome grew up in a wealthy family in Upper Sandusky, Ohio. Her father was president of a plastics corporation in the Akron area. She started her career in 1969 in the British movie Some Girls Do. She then appeared in Italian films, often playing the young, seemingly innocent American abroad, and also in spaghetti westerns. Subsequently she made forays into German film and television.

At the beginnings of the 1980s, Rome became an icon of the aerobics craze and published workout videos as well as the album "Aerobic Fitness Dancing", produced by Frank Farian and recorded in German, Spanish and Italian. As a singer, she recorded the single "Angelo prepotente" (1980) in Italian, English ("For You") and German ("Wozu"). She also recorded a cover version of Marty Balin's hit "Hearts".

In 1973, she married Emilio Lari; subsequently, she married the gerontologist Roberto Bernabei. She has been living in Italy since the early 1970s.