During a bus tour of Italy, 40-year-old housewife Rosalba (Licia Maglietta) is left behind by her husband and family at a rest stop. Disobeying orders to wait for them to retrieve her, she decides to follow her heart to Venice, a city of romance and intrigue. Dizzied by the adventure of being on her own, Rosalba checks into a pensione. The next day she misses the train home.
Alone in the city without money or credit cards, she is befriended by Fernando (Bruno Ganz), an idiosyncratic Icelander who works as a waiter. He gives her a room in his apartment. She soon gets a job in the florist shop of Fermo (Felice Andreasi), a curmudgeonly anarchist, and finds a chum in Grazia (Marinma Massironi), a holistic masseuse who's filled with enthusiasm about life.
Meanwhile Mimmo (Antonio Catania), Rosalba's put-upon husband, hires Constantino (Giuseppe Massironi) to do some detective work for him in Venice. This momma's boy, who is actually a plumber, takes off for the biggest adventure in his life and is surprised by what he finds awaiting him away from home.
"Longing is such a wonderful thing," Joan Chittister has observed. "It tells us that we're not finished yet. Those who long for nothing are already half dead." This wonderful Italian comedy pays tribute to the deep yearnings we all have for a life of adventure, romance, and intimacy. Like the heroine in Shirley Valentine, Rosalba finds an undiscovered and unused part of herself in a strange place. Isolated and ignored at home by a husband who has a mistress and sons who don't need her, she comes into full bloom in a romantic affair with Fernando, a man who until he met her, had given up on life. Co-writer and director Silvio Soldini draws out top-drawer performances from the entire cast.