The third part of an informal trilogy of Rossellini's Italian movies starring his wife Ingrid Bergman – the others are Stromboli (1950) and Europa 51 (1952).

Although Roberto Rossellini’s Journey to Italy (1953) is now established as one of world cinema’s supreme achievements, it still has a surprising number of detractors. I usually advise cinephiles who have trouble ‘getting’ the films Rossellini made with Ingrid Bergman to list all the things they perceive as flaws, then try to see them as misunderstood virtues. Take Bergman’s performances, which seem so much clumsier than her Hollywood roles. By stripping away the actress’s standard repertoire of gestures and line-readings, Rossellini revealed the genuine person usually concealed beneath the mask of technique. It says a great deal about our relationship to cinematic codes that many viewers consider Bergman’s acting in these masterpieces to be ‘unrealistic’. - Sight and Sound

Synopsis:

Sharing a passionless existence together, Alexander (George Sanders) and Katherine Joyce (Ingrid Bergman), a married English couple, travel to Naples after inheriting a villa. On the verge of divorce, with neither one's disposition warming to the other, they decide to spend the rest of the trip separately. Katherine visits museums and historical sites, whereas Alexander goes to Capri to unwind with drinks. However, during the course of their vacation, the Joyces both undergo changes.