POZZUOLI, Italy, June 23 (UPI) -- Sophia Loren, who grew up poor in a small village in southern Italy, returned to her hometown to become an honorary citizen.
During the ceremony in Pozzuoli near Naples, Loren said that she watched her first movies at the town's only theater and she remains devoted to the area, Hello Magazine reported.
"Inside of me, I maintain all of the sensations of the sea, the sun and the music and the sweet dialect," she said.
Loren's parents were not married, and she was so thin as a child that she was nicknamed "The Stick." After she got a few small parts in Italian movies, her career took off when the director Carlo Ponti made her his protege and then his wife.
The 70-year-old star looked stylish in a white outfit set off by the blue rosette given her by the town.
