Genoa 1939 – Marino 2019. They called her the “Pocket Venus” and the “Iron Chick” for that irresistible contrast between her petite frame and her dazzling green eyes. A cross between Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn and Jean Simmons, the tabloids wrote. Mario Monicelli discovered her and cast her as the lead in Renzo e Luciana, an episode of Boccaccio ’70 (1962): the story of two young office workers in the Milan of the economic boom, whose love is thwarted by social convention. That same year Bernardo Bertolucci, in his directorial debut, chose her for La Commare Secca. She had dreamed of opera  she had studied singing at the Teatro Carlo Felice  but cinema claimed her. Actress, singer, and cover model for hundreds of magazines, she worked with Nanni Loy, Alberto Sordi, and Carlo Verdone. Gina Lollobrigida chose her for over 7,000 shots across her photography books. A fifty-year career, a life that was  like the phoenix  one of continual rebirth.