De Sica Awards at Italy's Presidential Palace

The Associated Press
 
ROME (AP) - Sophia Loren paid tribute to Italian director Vittorio De Sica as 
she and a cast of Italian movie greats gathered at the presidential palace to 
receive achievement awards named in De Sica's honor. 

Loren recalled the first time she met De Sica, director of 1948's ``The 
Bicycle Thief,'' at Rome's Cinecitta studios. 

``I was 15 1/2, and we were in Cinecitta; I was doing a small part in a film, 
he saw me, looked at me, and said, `We'll see each other very soon.' 

``Perhaps he was thinking of `The Gold of Naples,''' Loren recalled, 
referring to her role as a pizza maker in De Sica's 1954 film. 

Also receiving honors Monday at the Quirinale palace were directors Bernardo 
Bertolucci, Franco Zeffirelli and Michelangelo Antonioni, and other masters 
of Italian cinema. 

The awards were presented in a ceremony to honor the 100th anniversary of De 
Sica's birth. He died in 1974. 

``To receive this award has been very moving,'' Loren, 67, said. ``I would 
have wanted Vittorio by my side.''