“Once again, happiness knocked on my door in vain.”

Italian housewife, Rosalba Barletta (Licia Maglietta) is on en route back home after a holiday with her obnoxious loudmouth husband and their two teenage sons. Rosalba is inadvertently left behind at a bus stop. At first she intends to catch up with her family, but then she makes a detour to Venice–a city she’s always wanted to see. A one-night escape converts into a full-blown adventure, and soon Rosalba is living and working in Venice establishing a new life all of her own.

Rosalba’s overbearing husband furiously demands that she return, but his nastiness serves only to re-enforce the reasons she’s in Venice in the first place. When Rosalba doesn’t return, her husband (who is also cheap to the core) employs a plumber with an interest in detective fiction to hunt Rosalba down and bring her back to her ever-mounting housewifely chores.

Three characters aid and abet Rosalba. There’s Fernando Girasoli (Bruno Ganz), the loquacious waiter at a local Chinese restaurant, Grazia, the new age masseuse, and a florist with anarchistic tendencies. The naive plumber sent to track down Rosalba discovers that some detective novels tips are invaluable when tracking down a renegade housewife. While it is definitely true that the film’s appeal targets those who experience love in middle age, there’s also a delicious novelty to “Bread and Tulips.” It’s an utterly charming film. It’s romantic, but it’s also funny. And there’s a reassurance that stepping into a new life may be as simple as missing the bus. If you enjoyed “Educating Rita” and “Shirley Valentine”, then there’s an excellent chance that you will also enjoy the very good-natured Italian film, “Bread and Tulips.”