Vanna Bonta grew up in Bangkok, Thailand, Florence, Italy and the USA. She was born in the South and speaks fluent Italian, some French, and some Thai. She began her schooling in Bangkok where she attended a British missionary school.

Vanna Bonta modeled for "Woman" in the "Creation" statue by Fredrick Hart and David Hytla on the west portal of the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, DC, which former-President George Bush has described as combining "the permanence of stone and God.".Via Luigi Ugolini in Maremma, Italy is named after her grandfather, an Italian poet and author.Her family home was made a national monument to her grandfather in Tuscany. (1995)Was given the medieval Tuscan name Vanna by her grandfather, Luigi Ugolini, after the girl in Dante's Vita Nuova.Sat for legendary Florentine artist Pietro Annigoni , who gave her the portrait inscribed with a promise to sketch her every time she was in Florence.Pietro Annigoni was the best man at her parents' wedding. The official portraitist to Queen Elizabeth II and John F. Kennedy was an artistic friend and longtime family friend of her fine artist mother.Learned to swim as a child by leaping off an olympic height diving board because she didn't want to make the line behind her climb back down the ladder.Spoke her first words at four months.Was baptized on the exact spot as the 14th century poet Dante Alighieri in Florence, Italy.Is married to a rocket scientist.Wrote her first novel at age 11.Has flown in zero gravity.Favorite music: Matchbox 20, Moby, Lounge (18th Street), Moody Blues, Train, Smashmouth, Enya, Beethoven, Vivaldi, Enigma, Hotel Cotes, Space Tribe.Her story "Somewhen" was purchased for the first season development of Star Trek: TNG.Was named after the best friend of Beatrice, The Divine Comedy (Dante).Her name is correctly pronounced Vah'-na.An entry in the Northrop Grumman space competition 2007 Lunar Lander X-Prize was inspired by and named after the fictional spacecraft "Lauryad" in one of her novels.Has a gold-cream dog (Chow Chow breed) named Sky and formerly had a blue Chow Chow named Seraph.Admitted being fashion-challenged and wears paper clips as hair barrettes.As a Hollywood newbie danced in MTV videos and did ghostwriting.Plays piano and did her own piano playing and in the audio book version of her novel Flight.Her grandfather Luigi Ugolini was also her godfather at a ceremony registered in Florence, Italy's medieval Baptistery.The gallery of paintings in the music video "Home Is You" are all by her mother, Florentine turned US citizen painter Marialuisa Bonta.A signed first edition of her controversial novel Flight sold for $580 in 2008.Was cast in dental plaster for special effects needed in her role as Zed's Wife in The Beastmaster (1982).Coined the literary genre "quantum fiction." (Publishers Weekly).Had her dog's DNA mapped.Invented the 2Suit, a garment for intimacy in microgravity environments.Started as an artist's model at age 10.Was considered for the role of Sheena (1984).Collects writing instruments, from quill pens through several era typewriters.Was known to send her mother flowers on her own birthday with thanks for having given her birth.