For Federico Fellini, vitelloni were "the unemployed of the middle class, mother's pets. They shine during the holiday season, and waiting for it takes up the rest of the year".
The part for Sergio Natali was originally offered to the great Italian director, Vittorio De Sica. He politely declined as he was concerned that the character's homosexuality might mark the director himself as a homosexual.
The best English translation of "i vitelloni" would be "the slackers".
Federico Fellini intended to continue the story of the protagonist of this film, Moraldo Rubini, in a movie to be entitled "Moraldo in the City", in which the young man would experience big city life for the first time, and suffer frustration, grief, and disillusionment. The film was never made, but the script has been published in English, and some aspects of the narrative apparently inspired parts of Fellini's later film, Das süße Leben (1960).