She spent her first years there, moving with her parents to Rome after World War II.

The movie gave Podestà international exposure, and she performed alongside a young Brigitte Bardot.

Thanks to her starring role in the Mexican film Rossana, she became very popular in Latin America.

Podestà also starred in the movie Ulisse (1955), directed by Mario Camerini, and in the sixties and seventies she acted in some romantic movies, including Paolo il caldo and Il prete sposato which led to a double page of five half-naked pictures in the US Playboy of March 1966.

Under the headline "Trio Con Brio" featuring European actresses, she appeared alongside Christiane Schmidtmer (from Germany) and Shirley Anne Field (from the UK).