Miss Italia is the name of a beauty pageant

Beauty contest

A beauty pageant or beauty contest, is a competition that mainly focuses on the physical beauty of its contestants, although such contests often incorporate personality, talent, and answers to judges' questions as judged criteria...

 awarding prizes every year to young, female contestants from Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

. Since the first edition of the contest in 1939 many of the contestants have gone on to notable careers in television and film.

History

The forerunner of Miss Italia was "Miss Sorriso" (Miss Smile) started in 1939 by Dino Villani, and sponsored by a brand of toothpaste. Contestants were judged by their photographs rather than competing on a runway.

After a break during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, the contest resumed in 1946 and adopted the present-day name of Miss Italia. It was held in Stresa

Stresa

Stresa is a town and comune of about 5,000 inhabitants on the shores of the Lago Maggiore in the region of Piedmont, northern Italy; it is situated on the road and rail routes to the Simplon pass, about 90 km north-west of Milan. Since the early 20th century, the main source of income has been the...

, which had managed to maintain its hotel infrastructure despite the war. The venue then changed several times before it was established that Salsomaggiore Terme would be the permanent, annual host to the pageant.

Like contemporary Italian society itself, the Miss Italia has gone through many changes over the years. In 1950 it was first broadcast on the radio. But since 1987 it has been broadcast live on television. As of 1990 the chest, waist, and hip measurements of the contestants are no longer judged, and in 1994 the contest was opened to married women and mothers. (The 1987 winner had been disqualified when it was later discovered she was married.) In 1996, Denny Mendez

Denny Mendez

Denny Andreina Méndez de la Rosa is a former beauty queen turned model and actress who represented Italy in the 1997 Miss Universe pageant.-Early life:...

 became the first Miss Italia woman of colour.

Among the participants finding later success in cinema and the entertainment industry at large (although many not having actually won the crown of Miss Italia itself) include: Silvana Pampanini

Silvana Pampanini

Silvana Pampanini is an Italian actress. She was Miss Italy in 1946 and the following year she started her movie career....

, Sophia Loren

Sophia Loren

Sophia Loren, OMRI is an Italian actress.In 1962, Loren won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Two Women, along with 21 awards, becoming the first actress to win an Academy Award for a non-English-speaking performance...

, Lucia Bosè

Lucia Bosé

Lucia Bosè, born Lucia Borloni , is an Italian actress, who was at the height of her fame during the period of Italian Neorealism, the 1940s and 1950s. She is the mother of famous Spanish singer Miguel Bosé.-Life and career:...

, Stefania Sandrelli

Stefania Sandrelli

Stefania Sandrelli is an Italian actress, famous for her many roles in the commedia all'Italiana, starting from 1960s. She was 15 years old when she starred in Divorce, Italian Style, as Marcello Mastroianni's cousin, Angela.She was born in Viareggio, Tuscany. She had a long relationship with...

, Mirca Viola, Simona Ventura

Simona Ventura

Simona Ventura is an Italian television presenter.-The Beginnings:Ventura started in TV on "Domani Sposi" with Giancarlo Magalli on Rai Uno....

, Anna Falchi

Anna Falchi

Anna Falchi is an Italian-Finnish model and film actress.-Career:Anna Falchi was born Anna Kristiina Palomäki in Tampere, Finland, the daughter of an Italian father and Finnish mother. In 1978, at the age of six, she moved to Italy with her family. She started her career as a model...

 and Martina Colombari.

Since 1959 the organizer of Miss Italia has been Enzo Mirigliani

Enzo Mirigliani

Enzo Mirigliani is an internationally known celebrity for his work as the head of the Miss Italy beauty pageant. Originating from Santa Caterina in Calabria, Italy, Enzo became the reason for Miss Italy`s success in 1959 and has continued to help preserve its popularity throughout the world...

, to whose work the contest owes much of its current success. The jury groups that elect Miss Italia have included celebrities such as Totò

Totò

Prince Antonio Focas Flavio Angelo Ducas Comneno De Curtis di Bisanzio Gagliardi, best known by his stage name Totò and nicknamed il principe della risata was an Italian comedian, film and theatre actor, writer, singer and songwriter...

, Giorgio De Chirico

Giorgio de Chirico

Giorgio de Chirico was a pre-Surrealist and then Surrealist Italian painter born in Volos, Greece, to a Genovese mother and a Sicilian father. He founded the scuola metafisica art movement...

, Giovannino Guareschi

Giovannino Guareschi

Giovannino Oliviero Giuseppe Guareschi was an Italian journalist, cartoonist and humorist whose most famous creation is the priest Don Camillo.-Life and career:...

, Luchino Visconti

Luchino Visconti

Luchino Visconti di Modrone, Count of Lonate Pozzolo was an Italian theatre, opera and cinema director, as well as a screenwriter. He is best known for his films The Leopard and Death in Venice .-Life:...

, Vittorio De Sica

Vittorio de Sica

Vittorio De Sica was an Italian director and actor, a leading figure in the neorealist movement....

, Gina Lollobrigida

Gina Lollobrigida

Gina Lollobrigida is an Italian actress, photojournalist and sculptress. She was one of the most popular European actresses of the 1950s and early 1960s. She was also an iconic sex symbol of the 1950s. Today, she remains an active supporter of Italian and Italian American causes, particularly the...

, Alberto Lattuada

Alberto Lattuada

Alberto Lattuada was an Italian film director.Lattuada was born in Milan, the son of composer Felice Lattuada...

, Marcello Mastroianni

Marcello Mastroianni

Marcello Vincenzo Domenico Mastroianni, Knight Grand Cross was an Italian film actor. His honours included British Film Academy Awards, Best Actor awards at the Cannes Film Festival and two Golden Globe Awards.- Personal life :...

, Ugo Tognazzi

Ugo Tognazzi

Ugo Tognazzi was an Italian film, TV, and theatre actor, director, and screenwriter.-Early life:Tognazzi was born in Cremona, in northern Italy but spent his youth in various localities as his father was a traveller clerk for an insurance company.After his return in the native city in 1936, he...

, Lina Wertmuller

Lina Wertmüller

Lina Wertmüller is an Italian film writer and director of aristocratic Swiss descent. In 1976, she became the first woman ever to be nominated for an Academy Award for Directing with the film Seven Beauties.-Biography:...

, Dino Risi, Alberto Sordi

Alberto Sordi

Alberto Sordi, also known as Albertone, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian actor. He was also a film director and the dubbing voice of Oliver Hardy in the Italian version of the Laurel & Hardy films....

, and Claudia Cardinale

Claudia Cardinale

Claudia Cardinale is an Italian actress, and has appeared in some of the most prominent European films of the 1960s and 1970s. The majority of Cardinale's films have been either Italian or French...

.

Besides the title of "Miss Italia", during the pageant other consolation prizes are also awarded, including "Miss Elegance" and "Miss Cinema". In 1991 a separate pageant was instituted, called "Miss Italia Nel Mondo

Miss Italia nel Mondo

Miss Italia nel Mondo or Miss Italy in the World is an Italian beauty pageant for women of Italian heritage which has been held since 1991...

", a competition for Italian women living abroad.
Miss Italia will no longer be held in Salsomaggiore Terme,for economic reasons. This was announced in April of 2011 and a long list of cities have expressed interest in hosting the pageant. Cities include Sanremo, Roma,Fiuggi,Taormina and many many more. It was officially announced that Miss Italia 2011 will be held in Montecatini Terme. Milly Carlucci will not return as host of the pageant. Fabrizio Frizzi has replaced her for Miss Italia 2011. The pageant will only take place over two nights, rather than three.

Regional rankings

Titles	State	Winning Years
10	Lombardia	1940–1941–1947–1956–1960–1965–1978–1982–1985-1990
9	Lazio	1950–1951–1952–1953–1967–1971–1972–1993-2000
8	Sicilia	1954–1966–1976–1977–1988–1995–2003-2008
6	Veneto Veneto Veneto is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about 5 million, ranking 5th in Italy.Veneto had been for more than a millennium an independent state, the Republic of Venice, until it was eventually annexed by Italy in 1866 after brief Austrian and French rule...	1957-1964–1989–1992–2002-2007
5	Friuli-Venezia Giulia Friuli-Venezia Giulia Friuli–Venezia Giulia is one of the twenty regions of Italy, and one of five autonomous regions with special statute. The capital is Trieste. It has an area of 7,858 km² and about 1.2 million inhabitants. A natural opening to the sea for many Central European countries, the region is...	1948–1970–1974–1984-1987
5	Calabria Calabria Calabria , in antiquity known as Bruttium, is a region in southern Italy, south of Naples, located at the "toe" of the Italian Peninsula. The capital city of Calabria is Catanzaro....	1955–1968–1997-2009-2011
4	Piemonte	1939–1983–2004-2005
4	Toscana	1946–1973–1980-1996
3	Campania Campania Campania is a region in southern Italy. The region has a population of around 5.8 million people, making it the second-most-populous region of Italy; its total area of 13,590 km² makes it the most densely populated region in the country...	1959–1986-2001
3	Emilia-Romagna Emilia-Romagna Emilia–Romagna is an administrative region of Northern Italy comprising the two historic regions of Emilia and Romagna. The capital is Bologna; it has an area of and about 4.4 million inhabitants....	1958-1991–1998
3	Marche Marche The population density in the region is below the national average. In 2008, it was 161.5 inhabitants per km2, compared to the national figure of 198.8. It is highest in the province of Ancona , and lowest in the province of Macerata...	1949–1969-1981
2	Umbria Umbria Umbria is a region of modern central Italy. It is one of the smallest Italian regions and the only peninsular region that is landlocked.Its capital is Perugia.Assisi and Norcia are historical towns associated with St. Francis of Assisi, and St...	1962–2010
2	Sardegna	1963–1994
2	Liguria Liguria Liguria is a coastal region of north-western Italy, the third smallest of the Italian regions. Its capital is Genoa. It is a popular region with tourists for its beautiful beaches, picturesque little towns, and good food.-Geography:...	1961–1975
1	Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol	2006
1	Puglia	1999
1	Abruzzo Abruzzo Abruzzo is a region in Italy, its western border lying less than due east of Rome. Abruzzo borders the region of Marche to the north, Lazio to the west and south-west, Molise to the south-east, and the Adriatic Sea to the east...	1979

The Winners of Miss Italia

Miss Sorriso
1939	Isabella Vernay	1940	Gianna Maranesi	|1941	Adriana Serra Adriana Serra Adriana Serra is an Italian film actress. She appeared in 18 films between 1943 and 1952. She was born in Milan, Italy. She was Miss Italia in 1941.-Filmography:* "Mont Oriol" * Miracolo a Viggiù * Abbiamo vinto!...
1942	No pageant	1943	No pageant	1944	No pageant
1945	No pageant
Miss Italia
1946	Rossana Martini	1947	Lucia Bosè Lucia Bosé Lucia Bosè, born Lucia Borloni , is an Italian actress, who was at the height of her fame during the period of Italian Neorealism, the 1940s and 1950s. She is the mother of famous Spanish singer Miguel Bosé.-Life and career:...	1948	Fulvia Franco
1949	Mariella Gianpieri	1950	Anna Maria Bugliari	1951	Isabella Valdettaro
1952	Eloisa Cianni	1953	Marcella Mariani	1954	Eugenia Bonino
1955	Brunella Tocci	1956	Nives Zegna	1957	Beatrice Faccioli
1958	Paola Falchi	1959	Marisa Jossa	1960	Layla Rigazzi
1961	Franca Cattaneo	1962	Raffaella De Carolis	1963	Franca Dallolio
1964	Mirka Sartori	1965	Alba Rigazzi	1966	Daniela Giordano
1967	Cristina Businari	1968	Graziella Chiappalone	1969	Anna Zamboni
1970	Alba Balestra	1971	Maria Pinnone	1972	Adonella Modestini
1973	Margareta Veroni	1974	Loredana Piazza	1975	Livia Jannoni
1976	Paola Bresciano	1977	Anna Kanakis Anna Kanakis Anna Kanakis to a Greek father and an Italian mother, is an Italian actress and model.She was Miss Italy in 1977...	1978	Loren Cristina May
1979	Cinzia De Ponti	1980	Cinzia Lenzi	1981	Patrizia Nanetti
1982	Federica Moro	1983	Raffaella Baracchi	1984	Susanna Huckstep
1985	Eleonora Resta	1986	Roberta Capua Roberta Capua -Biography:She became known in the Italian entertainment world with her election as Miss Italia in 1986. Her mother Marisa Jossa had been awarded the same title in 1959. The year after she placed second at Miss Universe....	1987	Michela Rocco di Torrepadula
1988	Nadia Bengala	1989	Eleonora Benfatto	1990	Rosangela Bessi
1991	Martina Colombari	1992	Gloria Zanin	1993	Arianna David
1994	Alessandra Meloni	1995	Anna Valle	1996	Denny Mendez Denny Mendez Denny Andreina Méndez de la Rosa is a former beauty queen turned model and actress who represented Italy in the 1997 Miss Universe pageant.-Early life:...
1997	Claudia Trieste	1998	Gloria Bellicchi	1999	Manila Nazzaro
2000	Tania Zamparo	2001	Daniela Ferolla	2002	Eleonora Pedron Eleonora Pedron Eleonora Pedron is an Italian model and actress, who was crowned Miss Italia 2002.She later briefly served as a weather presenter on Italy's Rete 4 channel. As an actress she was most recently seen in the TV series Donna Detective....
2003	Francesca Chillemi	2004	Cristina Chiabotto Cristina Chiabotto Cristina Chiabotto is an Italian showgirl.Chiabotto was born in Moncalieri, in the province of Turin . She has a younger sister, Serena.In 2004 she won Miss Italia and started working for RAI....	2005	Edelfa Chiara Masciotta Edelfa Chiara Masciotta Edelfa Chiara Masciotta is an Italian television personality and former beauty pageant titleholder who won Miss Italia 2005.Masciotta was born in Turin. She was crowned Miss Italy on September 19, 2005...
2006	Claudia Andreatti Claudia Andreatti Claudia Andreatti was Miss Italia 2006. She comes from Pergine Valsugana, , Italy. She replaced the outgoing Edelfa Chiara Masciotta Miss Italia 2005...	2007	Silvia Battisti	2008	Miriam Leone Miriam Leone Miriam Leone is an Italian television personality and beauty pageant titleholder who won the Miss Italia 2008 beauty contest.-Biography:...
2009	Maria Perrusi Maria Perrusi Maria Perrusi is an Italian beauty queen. She is noted for winning Miss Italia 2009. Maria is tall and is the daughter of a stay at home mother and factory working father. She has 2 older brothers. Before winning Miss Italia, she wanted to become a model. Her hobbies incude volleyball, swimming...	2010	Francesca Testasecca Francesca Testasecca Francesca Testasecca is the winner of 71st edition of Miss Italia. She won the crown on September 13, 2010.- Biography :...	2011	Stefania Bivone

External links

• Miss Italia Official site