About Dianne

Ever since I was a girl, I had only one career goal: to write for a living—and I’ve certainly done so! I’ve written a thousand articles for national publications and authored more than forty trade and text books. Although I’ve enjoyed all aspects of my career, the books inspired by Italy remain closest to my heart.

La Bella Lingua: My Love Affair with Italian, the World’s Most Enchanting Language, released in 2009, opened up a world of new experiences and new friends—and won for me the great honor of an Italian knighthood. While researching the history of Italian in Florence, I became intrigued by the story of the real woman—Mona (Madame) Lisa Gherardini—immortalized by Leonardo da Vinci. Over the course of several years I walked the streets in Florence where she lived, knelt in the chapel where she prayed, ventured into the long-abandoned convent where she died—and wrote Mona Lisa: A Life Discovered.

Official Bio

Dianne Hales is the author of La Passione: How Italy Seduced the World; La Bella Lingua, a New York Times best-seller; Mona Lisa: A Life Discovered, an Amazon best book of the year, translated into six languages; and more than forty trade and text books. Her other books (listed below) include Just Like a Woman, Caring for the Mind and thirty editions of a leading college health textbook, An Invitation to Health.

Following publication of the New York Times-bestselling La Bella Lingua, the President of Italy awarded Dianne the highest recognition the government can bestow on a foreigner: honorary knighthood, with the title of Cavaliere dell’Ordine della Stella della Solidarietà Italiana (Knight of the Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity), for her contributions to promoting the Italian language.

As a widely published freelance journalist, Dianne served as a contributing editor for Parade, Ladies Home Journal, Working Mother and American Health and has written for many national publications, including The New York Times, Psychology Today and The Washington Post. She has received writing awards from the American Psychiatric Association, American Psychological Association, an “EMMA” (Exceptional Media Merit Award) for health reporting from the National Women’s Political Caucus and Radcliffe College, three “EDI” (Equality, Dignity, Independence) awards for print journalism from the National Easter Seal Society, Arthritis Foundation, California Psychiatric Society, CHADD (Children and Adults with Attention Deficit / Hyperactivity), Council for the Advancement of Scientific Education, and the New York City Public Library.