GOODA-TREK

The girls from Floriano Peixoto

Some of the girls from Flori celebrating belated Birthdays of Bebeta Miller & Dalia Montenegro at Gorette Santos’s place in Natal, The City of Sun. Today I am writing about our girls who survived the winds that blows away friendships and dreams…..that survived Tapas & Beijos and what takes away and brings back good memories.

Yes… People like  the Girls of Flori  are rare to find it but they exist and are much more real than any reality show! It’s all about a group that have been friends since childhood and that I met soon after coming back from live in Rio de Janeiro to Natal, my beloved City of Sun in Brazil before I met the man who would change my life for ever… Taking me to my biggest adventures around the world as I never dream in my wildest deepest dreams…

Great friends, mothers, sisters, daughters, aunts, sisters-in-law, grandmothers and god mothers. We are busy bees working for a better world each in our own way. I live travelling around the world …They’re present when and how they can in their reunions to get together and celebrate life!

Life does these things, but with these girls they give back over and over what life gave them! They managed to surprise everyone including themselves things even they did not predict could build such strong ties of friendship and fraternity!
They built such strong ties of friendships that neither they nor anyone managed to untie. Through thick and thin, highs and lows, they’re there for one another. These girls know how to turn things around! They are no longer girls but women now! Family and friends are everything!

This photo is part of our large family in a happy moment with three generations together. We do love and enjoy each other company!

Some closer than others, but all in all, I can say the girls from Flori without exception have a bond that nothing managed to destroy, althought they no longer live at the road called Floriano Peixoto where they started their long lasting friendship.
These were Golden times full of pure magic of the 70’s in which they lived and keep deep inside entwined in their own way, even now. They giggle, are bubbly and give big cries of joy. The energy that they generate when they meet is truly amazing!
Distance doesn’t matter; they own a secret code amongst them and the key was thrown out a long time ago.
The girls of Flori! Of Floriano Peixoto, legends of their times!
Today they live separate ways, some live around the world and the one who is writing is living in motorhome travelling the world. Others just moved around the corner. But; they always get together in one way or another.
Now; you have no idea of what those girls are made of. You would understand if you met their mothers! Extraordinary women!

We miss the mamas Didita, D. Eglinha, D. Maria & Dona Carmen very much…. But lucklily some are still alive…
The pioneer girls of Flori were the Mafioletti, Montenegro and Alff’ families: Lize & Virginia, Rizza, Rejane, Roseane, Rose ( Nildinha) , Dalia e Denise Then the Dantas girls Bebeta & Gorette, Lucia, Netinha & me! Many more girls came along, some were relatives: Eliane, Amelia, Cinara, Vitoria, Betinha, then Maninha, Mariza, Marineide, Teresa, Jayra Pinheiro, Regina, Olga and many more!
This is a unique history full of stories entwined in the lives of those girls. I haven chosen a beautiful colorful book with a pretty Mont Blanc pen (I got as a gift from my husband ) to write in style. So many moments that jumped into my mind that I collect now “notes and giggles”… As I always say

“we need to register the great times before they fade away”.

Our collection of thoughts are in progress. The pleasure in writing about our adventures?Indescribable because as I am writing I am filled with joy. I find myself laughing “a toa sem saber porque”! ( below photo)
These girls from Flori are like no others! The world would not be same without them! But; those that had the privilege of knowing their mothers would understand better what they are made of and way they are so special. They have no measures; everything they do they give their best shot! Are they for real?
Yes and we are often called CRAZY… But we know we are  SIMPLY THE BEST !

By Lukie Dantas- Gooda

The girls from Floriano Peixoto are from Natal, Brazil.They were an icon of their times when they had the most sensational time of their lives enjoying LIFE & FRIENDSHIP!

There is something really unspoken about Rome! It is like a secret code that you only find out when you come here and start the Roman History and Cuture Trail for all this city offers to the world.

Everywhere you look is something to admire, to get curious and feel like going back in times! This is real and We love it!
Never get tired of people’s watching and the look at their faces OMG! This is Rome,

There is a Motorhome Fever in Italy at the moment… In Rome there are motorhomes everywhere!
We see motorhomes all sizes everywhere we turn but no caravans!
We heard that Caravans are not popular in Italy as the police could associate with Roman Gypsies

The first week of January is behind us. Our good intentions and resolutions are still written boldly across our hearts and days in what looks like indelible ink, but past experience has proven again and again that those fresh, black statements are less permanent than they seem. Time flies for all of us and Mr Gooda has gone back to work until … He is back again!In a few weeks time.

In Rome it is common to find Motorhome Stops or Camper Stops but only in the suburb of Rome. Make no mistake they are not cheap but hey… This is Rome after all!! So here we are in Camping La Terrazze a 20 mins drive to the Centre Historic.

“Rome’s history spans three millennia, from the classical myths of vengeful gods to the follies of the Roman emperors, from Renaissance excess to swaggering 20th-century Fascism. Emperors, popes and dictators have come and gone, playing out their ambitions against foreign powers and domestic rivals, stamping out heresies and conspiring for their place in history.
Everywhere you go in this remarkable city, you’re surrounded by the past. The martial ruins, huge Renaissance palazzi (mansions) and flamboyant baroque churches all have a tale to tell – of family feuding, artistic rivalry or personal grief, of political infighting or dark intrigue.” Fascinating

Read more: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/italy/rome/history#ixzz2puSVgc5a

ORVIETO … Etruscan Civilisation once an underground city!
On the way from Florence to Rome we visited fascinating Orvieto. Between Orvieto em Rome
The underground city.
The city of Orvieto has long kept the secret of its labyrinth of caves and tunnels that lie beneath the surface. Dug deep into the tuff, a volcanic rock, these secret hidden tunnels are only now open to view through guided tours. Their spectacular nature has also yielded many historical and archeological finds. Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire, the United States, has set up a program, where each summer, students travel to Italy to work at the college’s archaeology site located at the Coriglia excavation site, just outside of town.

The underground city boasts tunnels, galleries, wells, stairs, quarries, cellars, unexpected passageways, cisterns, superimposed rooms with numerous small square niches, detailing its creation over the centuries. Many of the homes of noble families were equipped with a means of escape from the elevated city during times of siege through secret escape tunnels carved from the soft rock. The tunnels would lead from the city palazzo to emerge at a safe exit point some distance away from city walls.

According to research into Orvieto’s HistoryPopulated since Etruscan times, Orvieto was certainly a major centre of Etruscan civilization; the archaeological museum (Museo Claudio Faina e Museo Civico) houses some of the Etruscan artefacts that have been recovered in the immediate neighbourhood. An interesting survival that might show the complexity of ethnic relations in ancient Italy and how such relations could be peaceful, is the inscription on a tomb in the Orvieto Cannicella necropolis: mi aviles katacinas, “I am of Avile Katacina”, with an Etruscan-Latin first name (Aulus) and a family name that is believed to be of Celtic (“Catacos”) origin.
Roman and post-Roman eras[edit]
Orvieto was annexed by Rome in the third century BC. After the collapse of the Roman Empire its defensible site gained new importance.
During so many years of continuous contact between Etruscans and Roman many elements of Etruscan culture permeated into that of Rome. Writing, religion, construction, hydraulics and even wine and the socio-political structure was taken from that of Etruria. Many of these became so Roman that their Etruscan origin was forgotten. An amazing example of this is the very name “Caesar” so strongly associated with the might of Rome. The name has roots in the Etruscan “Aisar” which meant “Great”.

The end of the Etruscan civilisation is dated at 54ac. It was in this year that Emperor Claudius, great lover of the Etruscan civilisation and husband of the Etruscan princess Urgulanilla died. Claudius was supposedly the last speaker of the ancient language and used his access to the private libraries to write 20 books entitled “Tyrrhenika” on the history of the Etruscan people (now sadly lost).