In Memoriam: Daniela Giordana

Staff Blogger

C.A. Casey

A few years ago we received an interesting manuscript of a book that had been originally published in Italy from a woman named Daniela Giordana. We didn't quite know what to make of the manuscript, except that it was as unique as its author. 

Claudia was so captivated by the submission that became The Dream Visitor, she ignored protocol and immediately wrote Daniela and said we'd take her book. Claudia was convinced she had found her soul sister. Liz also became good friends with Daniela. They talked often about science and engineering and Daniela's ongoing research.

To say Daniela Giordana is one of the most fascinating women we have ever encountered is truly an understatement. To the world, she's an actress who became a staple in spaghetti westerns in the 1960s and 1970s. For fun, we showed her picture to the owner of our favorite Italian restaurant here in Northern California and she immediately recognized Daniela by name.

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​What all the fans who grew up watching Daniela in over fifty films didn't know: she was, at best, a reluctant actress. She stumbled into the world of show biz when she became an equally reluctant beauty pageant contestant and was crowned Miss Italia at the age of nineteen in 1966. 

​Because of her looks and that she could speak some English, she became a favorite to cast when Americans came to Italy to film westerns. 

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​She never took herself seriously as an actress and accepted parts because they could pay the rent. 

Being an actress allowed her to pursue her life's work in "avant-garde research in the field of subtle energies, looking for solutions to the intellectual stagnation of the time on topics opposed by most of the scientific circles." In other words, she studied with the diligence and tenacity of a scientist what we would call New Age science such as psychic phenomena and UFOs. She also was a publisher of a magazine, and wrote numerous articles and treatises about her observations and discoveries.

Her book The Dream Visitor is an extraordinary account, part biography/part deep dive into the study of the mind and the world beyond our everyday perceptions, written from the perspective of a surprisingly down-to-earth and practical woman.

Just in October, we celebrated with her as she received the Premio Letterario Nazionale Ercole Patti Lifetime Achievement Award.

A few weeks ago she had let us know that she had lung cancer and wanted nothing more than to live long enough to see her next book in print. Unfortunately, we lost Daniela on December 18th, just a few weeks after her 75th birthday. 

Bedazzled Ink not only lost a remarkable author, we lost a friend who touched each of us on a personal level.

We hope she finally found her dream visitor and got the answers she spent a lifetime searching for.