Quiz

Sophia Loren claims that Director Vittorio De Sica, so caught up in the story, regularly cried on the set when filming particularly emotional scenes.

Sophia Loren's Best Actress Academy Award was the first Oscar ever given for a performance in a foreign-language film.

It has been said that Anna Magnani originally was cast in the role of Cesira, but when she was unable commit to the film due to illness, it was Magnani herself who suggested Sophia Loren for the role, saying to director Vittorio De Sica that if Loren (who was 25 years old at the time) would not mind playing a mother with an adolescent daughter, then the role should go to her.

Jean-Paul Belmondo confessed in an interview that during the kissing scene between him and Sophia Loren, director Vittorio De Sica fell asleep, and both Belmondo and Loren waited for the director to say "Cut" for the take ending.

Sophia Loren was 25 at the time of filming and Eleonora Brown just 11, although both looked older.