Italian movie icon Gina Lollobrigida will be showing off her lesser-known but greatly praised talents as a photographer with a sweeping retrospective that opens Friday in Rome.
Around 250 of what organisers said were the most significant photos 'La Lollo' has taken over 50 years of travelling the world will go on show for the exhibition at Palazzo delle Esposizioni.
On show are shots of people and places from her trips to India, the Philippines, Russia, China, Japan, and other places, while an entire room is dedicated to photos of Italy.
Many of the pictures reflect Lollobrigida's work with the poor and sick from her long collaboration with humanitarian organisations such as UNICEF and Doctors Without Borders and time spent with Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
''Gina Lollobrigida is a lady with a will of steel, a tireless traveller and a fully fledged 'femme forte' of our era,'' organisers said of the actress, who was appointed the Food and Agriculture Organization's first female ambassador in 1999.
As well as snaps of her extensive travels, Lollobrigida will also showcase portraits of stars from the worlds of showbusiness, politics, art and fashion including Indira Gandhi, Fidel Castro, Henry Kissinger, Grace Kelly, Audrey Hepburn and Sean Connery.
The exhibition ends with some of her most famous photos of children and animals collected in her 1994 book, The Wonder of Innocence - one of eight volumes of photography she has published.
Gina Lollobrigida was born in 1927 in Subiaco, a town near Rome.
As a young woman she set her heart on an artistic career, winning a valuable scholarship to study sculpture and painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, before turning to acting.
In April 2000 she told Parade magazine that she ''studied painting and sculpture at school and became an actress by mistake''.
She has recently showed her sculptures in Moscow and Paris.
She first came to the attention of Italian film directors as a beauty queen, after coming third in the 1947 Miss Italy competition.
Her Hollywood breakout film was the 1953 John Houston movie Beat the Devil, although today she is still best known for the Italian romantic comedy ''Pane, Amore...'' series.
She rose to fame on the back of her classic Latin beauty and her short ''tossed salad'' hairstyle. A kind of curly lettuce was even named ''Lollo'' in her honour.
In the 1970s she drifted away from acting to start a second career in photography and photojournalism, once scooping an exclusive interview with Cuban leader Castro.
The exhibition runs at Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome from June 26 until September 13.
