“Dear Mr. Rossellini, I have seen your films Rome, Open City and Paisan and I enjoyed them very much. If you need a Swedish actress who speaks English very well, hasn't forgotten her German, is barely understood in French, and can only say ‘I love you’ in Italian, I am ready to come to Italy to work with you.” Rossellini, after receiving this letter from Ingrid Bergman, then one of Hollywood's biggest stars, involved her in the project that would become the film Stromboli, Land of God (1950), but even before the film, it was the love story between the Roman director and the Swedish actress that filled the newspapers and magazines. Federico Patellani, one of the best photographers of the time, went to the Aeolian island: his photographs went around the world, because they documented not only the making of the film, but also the living conditions of the inhabitants and the strength of the elements. Photographs have emerged from the Patellani archive, now at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Milan-Cinisello Balsamo, helping to reconstruct that famous story in its entirety.