The most iconic scene in Italian cinema has a secret

You've seen the image countless times: Anita Ekberg in a black dress and the Trevi Fountain glowing behind her. It's one of the most reproduced frames in the history of cinema, and perhaps the single most seductive portrait of Rome ever captured on film. It became the image of a city that feels almost impossible: ancient and glamorous, intoxicating and eternal, unlike anywhere else on earth.

But what most people don't know about that scene is that making it was anything but glamorous.

While the characters are enjoying a Roman summer, the actors filmed on a freezing March night. Anita Ekberg famously stood in the icy water for hours without a single complaint (perhaps her Swedish childhood made her impervious to the cold?); Marcello Mastroianni, on the other hand, needed heavy waders hidden beneath his tuxedo to survive the shoot (and a few generous shots of vodka!).

That contrast is exactly what makes the scene immortal and what makes it such a perfect expression of Italian beauty. Fellini transformed a freezing, uncomfortable night into an eternal myth of glamour — and in doing so captured something true about beauty itself: that its power lies not in the conditions that create it, but in what it makes you feel.

This film gave the world a word we still use every day. Come back tomorrow to find out which one.