It Happened in Rome (1957)

Fairly enjoyable yarn about 2 hitch hiking girls (1 German, 1 French) who catch a ride with a pompous Britisher Margaret (June Laverick). Margaret has driven from London to Italy in her car. She is trying to get gas for her car. The 1st station has a long queue. The next station refuses to serve her as the station is on the street and the street is having a local bike race.

She is driving to Porta Furbe when she picks 2 hitch hikers French Josette (Isabelle Corey) and German Hilde (Ingeborg Schöner). They had been waiting for 3 hrs as no-one was offering a lift when they saw 2 people. There are 400, 000 hitch-hikers in the summer. Josette and Hilde are students. Their car runs out of fuel (Margaret blames Josette for distracting her with her constantly moving legs due to which she forgot to stop. Josette calls her a prude for driving a white MG) and they wind up pushing it to a service station. The car gets away on them (when it goes downhill without the brakes) and winds up in the sea. The local police helps the girls by driving them to motel at the next town, visited by Mr Wimbley, the British counsel in Italy. Mr Wimbley has lunch with the girls and tells Margaret that she is a protected child so far, which is why she was travelling in a personal car, which travelers checks and so on. To experience Europe, he advises her to do what her friends are doing - hitchhike. He convinces the girls to visit Venice. Josette shares a story of how one car owner wanted to rape Hilde in exchange for the ride. They first get a lift from a truck, but Margaret cant climb into the back and the truck drives away without them. But then get a lift from a car. They pitch a tent for the night, but Margaret cant sleep as she has hay fever. Margaret decides to head back home the next day, even as Hilde and Josette are having fun. Hrs later, she is picked by them, in a car, whose driver is taking them to a local town, from where they can catch a boat to Venice. The girls reach Venice. They park their bags at a cheap motel and visit St Marks Sq. Margaret was booked in a posh hotel, but now has no identification or money. They see a street theatre performance from the Maschere. the Count (Vittorio De Sica) who owns the street theatre saves the girls from being harassed by 3 military ruffians and takes them home to clean their clothes. Josette makes several references of how the count is old enough to be their father, and Hilde keeps hitting her with her elbow. The count offers to host the ladies for the night, as Josette is enamored by the house. Later, the girls find out that the count is running a hotel in his house, and might expect payment as he thinks that the girls are rich (he had spoken to Margaret). The girls say that Josette's father is sick and leave asap. They spend the night in a tent, and Josette and Hilde buy Margaret a shawl that she had likedThe next day, they hitch a ride in an ambulance to reach Ceralto (a castle). Here Margaret meets Ugo Parenti (Massimo Girotti), whom she had met previously in London (he was a war prisoner from WW II). Parenti remembers Margaret as a little girl in ponies, and is excited to see her as a woman. They get separated from the tour group and eventually get left behind and locked inside the castle. Margaret manages to find a bell, which she rings to attract attention of the custodian, who lets them out. Parenti meets Margaret again in Florence and asks her out. Meanwhile Josette and Hilde head to the library as they have an exam in 2 months. Josette is bored and leaves and is chased around by Italian men.She runs into Sergio Battistini (Alberto Sordi), who is a photographer and helps Josette get rid of her stalkers. Sergio is with his mother Cynthia (Isabel Jeans), and is obviously from a rich family. to impress them, Josette also pretends that she comes from money, she uses Margaret's story. Sergio loves Josette's free spirit and he feels stifled in the presence of Cynthia. Sergio leaves Cynthia behind and joins Josette as a hitch-hiker. Turns out Sergio was Cynthia's boy toy and not his son. while leaving her, he stole many of her jewels and cash, which she reports to the police. Italians don't give rides to other Italians, only to foreigners.So, Sergio poses like a Greek to get rides with the girls. The police catches up with Sergio, arrests him and takes him back to Florence. Meanwhile Margart and Hilde are waiting for a ride for 2 hrs. They pretend that Margaret is sick to force a car to stop. The driver Gino (Antonio Cifariello) offers to take them to the hospital and they accept their ruse and admit that they want to travel to Pisa. Gino begs Hilde to have dinner with him, but she only agrees to meet him at a campsite in Rome. In Rome, Hilde finds Gino and they go out. They end up kissing. Later, Gino takes her home to meet his family. Margaret goes with Josette to the British embassy to get some money. while there, Josette attends an auction sales and bids 15K lire on an article just for fun. Lawyer Alberto Cortini (Gabriele Ferzetti) notices this and bails her out by bidding 16K lire. He later admonishes Josette for playing games. Josette later finds Cortini at court, interrupts his case in front of the judge and yells at him for treating her rudely. Meanwhile Parenti asks Margaret to join his tour group, by making her pose as his wife. Parenti is admonished by his group for going off with Margaret when the trip was sponsored by the school and he was supposed to be everyone's guide. Parenti says that he will pay for his own trip and goes off with Margaret. Margaret expects that Parenti will propose, but she is disappointed when Parenti declares that he will quit his job and go back to his parents. Josette goes back to Cortini's office. Cortini's partner sees this and sends him a bottle of champagne, which Josette enjoys. They start flirting with each other. Josette falls asleep and to tease her, Cortini lies next to her. When Josette wakes up, she thinks Cortini slept with her. Josette starts crying and admits that she was only trying to get Cortini's attention as he was ignoring her. Cortinit admits that he never slept with her. Josette leaves in anger. The girls meet at their room.Josette is angry at Cortini and Margaret at Parenti. The next day Gino drops the girls to the airport. Cortini pursues Josette at the airport and they make up. Margaret board her flight to London and meet another friend, David, on the plane.