[1] After a number of years working in a bakery, Pasticceria Galli, in her native city, in 1947 she won the second edition of the Miss Italia beauty contest.

That same year, she starred in Antonioni's Cronaca di un amore (Story of a Love Affair) and in 1953, she reunited with him for La signora senza camelie (The Lady Without Camelias).

[citation needed] Her career flourished until 1955, when she fell in love with Spanish bullfighter Luis Miguel Dominguín during the filming of Muerte de un ciclista,[3] and gave up acting to marry and raise a family.

Then, after divorcing Dominguín, she returned full-time to the screen, appearing in such films as Fellini Satyricon (1969), Under the Sign of Scorpio (1969), Something Creeping in The Dark (1971), L'ospite (1972), Arcana (1972), Nathalie Granger (1972), La messe dorée (1975), Lumière (1976), and Violanta (1976).

She continued to be active in both Italian cinema and Spanish films, appearing in Cronaca di una morte annunciata (Chronicle of a Death Foretold, 1987), El niño de la luna (Moon Child, 1989), Harem Suare (1999), and I Viceré (2007).