Bread & Tulips

Synopsis: Rosalba is a housewife in Pescara with teenage sons, married since 21 to a plumbing supplier whose mistress is her sister-in-law. When a tour bus leaves her, and her husband calls to tell her to stay put, she rebels slightly and hitchhikes toward home, deciding on a whim to continue to Venice. She lucks into a room in the flat of Fernando, a diffident, formal Icelander, befriends Grazia, a holistic masseuse, and gets a job at the flower shop of Fermo, a cranky anarchist. Her husband sends a portly plumber to find her. Will duty and maternal instinct win out, or will Alba stay in Venice, combining Rome's rationality with Greece's imagination to find her true Italian self? 

Cast:
Licia Maglietta .... Rosalba Barletta 
Bruno Ganz .... Fernando Girasoli 
Marina Massironi .... Grazia 
Giuseppe Battiston .... Costantino 
Felice Andreasi .... Fermo 
Antonio Catania (I) .... Mimmo Barletta 
Tiziano Cucchiarelli .... Nic 
Matteo Febo .... Salvo 
Silvana Bosi .... Costantino's Mother 
Ludovico Paladin .... Eliseo 
Manrico Gammarota .... Man at the Station 
Massimiliano Speziani .... Goran 
Fausto Russo Alesi .... Man in Car 
Don Backy .... Ballad Singer 
Nunzio Daniele .... Tour Guide   

Director:  Silvio Soldini 

Writer:  Doriana Leondeff (screenplay)

Released:  2000 (theater)

Rating:   for brief language, some sensuality and drug references

Country:  Italy, Switzerland 

Language:  Italian

AKA: Pane e tulipani