Miss Italia

Miss Italia is a beauty pageant awarding prizes every year to young, female contestants from Italy.

[citation needed] After a break during World War II, the contest resumed in 1946 and adopted the present-day name of Miss Italia.

[citation needed] Among the participants finding later success in cinema and the entertainment industry at large (although many of them have not won the crown of Miss Italia itself) include: Silvana Pampanini, Sophia Loren,[citation needed] Marcella Mariani,[1] Lucia Bosè, Stefania Sandrelli, Mirca Viola, Simona Ventura, Patrizia Deitos, Anna Falchi and Martina Colombari.

[citation needed] Since 1959 the organizer of Miss Italia has been Enzo Mirigliani, to whose work the contest owes much of its current success.

The jury groups that elect Miss Italia have included celebrities such as Totò, Giorgio de Chirico, Giovannino Guareschi, Luchino Visconti, Vittorio De Sica, Gina Lollobrigida, Alberto Lattuada, Marcello Mastroianni, Ugo Tognazzi, Lina Wertmüller, Dino Risi, Alberto Sordi, and Claudia Cardinale.

In 1991 a separate pageant was instituted, called "Miss Italia nel Mondo", a competition for Italian women living abroad.