Viaggio in Italia (Voyage in Italy, 1953)


Katherine and Alexander Joyce, an English couple, travel to Naples in order to close their late uncle’s estate. This is the first time that the Joyce’s have been alone in their eight year marriage. While Alexander spends his day meeting with prospective buyers, Katherine goes to see the tourist sights alone. Her first stop in an art museum is rather uncomfortable as the statues are nude; nudity is something not to be discussed or admired in her native England. She is embarrassed when the guide asks her to comment on the beauty of a nude torso. She then travels to the site of the Cumaean Sibyl and is mortified when the guide tells her that in the place where she is standing they once sacrificed virgins.

Later, she fights with her husband and is surprised to discover that he has run off to Capri for the weekend without her. There in Capri, Alexander is in the company of many beautiful women and even attracts the attention of one in particular. The thought of cheating on his wife crosses his mind but he eventually decides against it. This thought reoccurs when he picks up a prostitute when he returns to the mainland. However, once again he is faithful.

The next day, Katherine and her friend travel to a shrine where the Italians pray for their dead relatives. The chapel is filled with neatly aligned skulls and bones and Katherine is disgusted. In the car, the two women count all of the pregnant woman on the street. They get so far as spotting seven on just one street. Feeling a conflict between her proper English upbringing and that of the vivacious Italian lifestyle, both Katherine and Alexander realize that they are unhappy in their current situation. These feelings culminate on the couple’s day trip to Pompeii where they witness the unveiling of two human figures which had been found during the excavation process. The two figures, a man and a woman, have been frozen in a loving embrace for hundreds of years. Realizing that her marriage lacks the love that these two individuals obviously felt for each other, Katherine announces to her husband that she wants a divorce.

The car ride home is somber and is interrupted by a religious procession of the Madonna. The couple exit their car to watch the procession and Katherine is separated from Alexander when the procession passes by and sweeps her up. The two scream and search for each other and when they finally are re-united they lock in an embrace. They realize that they want to give their marriage another try and pledge their love to each other.

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