Rome Through the Eyes of ‘Bicycle Thieves’: Honoring Enzo Staiola and Italian Neorealism

Today was the funeral of one of the last living connections to Italy’s Neorealist cinema movement. Enzo Staiola, the child actor at the heart of Bicycle Thieves, has died at 85. He was eight years old, with no acting experience, when director Vittorio De Sica cast him in the 1948 film that remains my favorite of all De Sica’s work.

Enzo, with his deeply expressive eyes, plays the son of Antonio (Lamberto Maggiorani), in real-life a factory worker, who finds employment pasting movie posters across Rome. He relies on his bicycle, reclaimed from a pawn shop after exchanging it for his wife’s treasured bedsheets. When the bicycle is stolen, Antonio and his young son embark on a poignant journey through the city to recover it. For those who have not yet seen the film, I will say no more—except that I urge you to watch it.

Vittorio De Sica, like his contemporaries Roberto Rossellini and Luchino Visconti, turned away from the escapist cinema of earlier decades, adopting instead a naturalistic approach that portrayed the emotional realities and daily struggles of working-class life. Neorealsim rejected sentimentality. Neorealist films were shot almost entirely on location, often in dilapidated rural areas or impoverished city neighborhoods. The actors were untrained amateurs, entirely devoid of self-consciousness, engaged in everyday, mundane activities.

I cry many times during Bicycle Thieves, and you may as well. In this—as in so many Neorealist films—survival is the characters’ overriding objective.

Our gaze lingers often on Enzo, who, though so young and with few life experiences, absorbs and expresses the pain of injustice, betrayal, and his father’s humiliation. His eyes speak of a childhood abruptly lost. In the unforgettable final scene, as Enzo and Antonio walk away from the camera, we see a father and son who have nothing left to lose.

Staiola did not act—he simply was. His presence on screen was unfiltered, his disarming sincerity captured by a remarkable director whose purpose was to speak with the force of truth.

Enzo Staiola, the son of a Roman fruit vendor, lived most of his life in Rome’s working-class Garbatella neighborhood and spent his professional years in the employment of the city’s land registry office.

Insider’s Italy is fortunate to offer a private Rome walking tour developed and led by a childhood friend who is Vittorio De Sica’s granddaughter. It was she who told me this morning that Enzo Staiola had died. Her exceptional tour explores classic filming locations throughout historic Rome, shares lesser-known family stories, and reveals the links between food and film—two great passions shared by De Sica and his granddaughter. The walk concludes with a rich aperitivo in a locale that was used more than once as a filming site for Neorealist cinema.

Of all the private Rome tours we offer, this is among my most personally beloved. It provides an immersive education in the history of Italian cinema, and the chance to walk, eat, and learn from an exceptional Roman—who is also one of Italy’s leading food experts. Let us know if we may include this unique experience in your next Insider’s Italy travels.

Enzo, che la terra ti sia lieve.

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