For the first time Sophia Loren fans have the opportunity to retrace the movie legend's career by visiting an exhibition of her personal memorabilia.
The actress has agreed to show a fascinating array of pieces from her private collection at Rome's central Vittoriano complex.
"I was amazed when I heard the idea of holding this show," Loren said.
"I'm happy. It is nice to talk about my career, which has lasted 50 years.
"It's a way to show people how a girl from Pozzuoli (near Naples) could get this far with strength and determination. I worked hard and my aim has always been to be an actress and make people feel emotions. "It was a hell of a job though. I spent months rummaging in the basement, remembering things and selecting (items)".
The show features some of the many awards she has won, movie posters, magazine covers, scripts and costumes.
There is a Christmas card from Charlie Chaplin, a telegram from close friend Cary Grant, a message from frequent co-star Marcello Mastroianni, and letters from George Pompidou, Jacques Chirac, Nancy Reagan and Bill Clinton.
Portraits, photos from film shoots, family snaps and school reports from her poor childhood in Naples are on display too.
Among the highlights are the black dress she had on for her Oscar-winning performance in Two Women (La Ciociara) and a much more glitzy outfit she wore to meet Queen Elizabeth II.
A section of the show is devoted to costumes made for her by her friend Giorgio Armani.
Over 2,000 exhibits are on display in all.
"Sophia is a synthesis of Italy," said Province of Rome President Enrico Gasbarra at the exhibition's presentation. "She is an artist and international ambassador for our country at the same time".
The exhibition, which is free and runs until May 7, is entitled Scicolone, Lazzaro, Loren - the three surnames she has used in her lifetime. Loren was born Sofia Villani Scicolone in Rome on September 20, 1934, but moved to Naples during the war. She was able to rise from poverty by taking part in a number of post-war beauty contests. She also worked as a model for an illustrated romantic stories weekly under the name Sofia Lazzaro.
It was during a beauty contest in the late 1940s that she caught the eye of her future husband, producer Carlo Ponti, who saw her potential and put her under contract. He and another producer, Goffredo Lombardo, got her to adopt the English spelling of Sophia and change her surname to Loren, a variation of Toren, after the Swedish actress Marta.
This led to a number of bit parts including the sword-and-sandal epic Quo Vadis and a small role in Federico Fellini's 1950 film Luci del Varieta' (Variety Lights). She shot to fame in 1954 with the L'Oro di Napoli (The Gold of Naples) under the direction of Italian film legend Vittorio De Sica.
Loren's special relationship with De Sica was the springboard from which she launched her hugely successful Hollywood career, starring in a string of classic movies with actors like Grant, Clark Gable and Anthony Quinn.
Loren went on to make cinema history in 1961 when she became the first person to win an Oscar for a performance in a foreign-language film, for her portrayal of a war-time rape victim in De Sica's Two Women.
In the 1960s Loren's career peaked with films on both sides of the Atlantic and another Oscar nomination, again under De Sica's direction, for the 1964 film Matrimonio all'Italiana (Marriage Italian Style), in which she starred alongside Mastroianni.
Her career slowed in the 1970s as she increasingly devoted herself to her family.
She has two sons by Ponti, who is 22 years her senior.
But she continues to work and was awarded a lifetime achievement Academy Award in 1991.
