It's the middle of the summer, so some people in Rome head to Ostia and the beach, by train or auto or scooter or even bicycle. Some stay in Rome and play in the fountains, or go out for coffee, or work, or rob stock yards.

It's Luciano Emmer's first story feature. He had been making documentaries since 1941, and would continue to do so through his death in 2009 at the age of 91, and he hasn't strayed far from his roots here, with little snippets of minor stories, all important to the characters, but completely unremarkable to outsiders. A widower tries to start a serious relationship with another woman, but that means his daughter must go to camp; a policeman (Marcello Mastroianni in his first substantial role, though his voice is dubbed by Alberto Sordi) has gotten his girlfriend pregnant. They want to marry, but her employers have given her notice; a boy and a girl rent a pedal raft at the beach, sink it, and have to hike back miles.

Given the title, one immediately thinks of MENScHEN AM SONNTAG, and there's almost certainly a linkage, but to me it's simply a handsome little anthology of a world getting back to order after the chaos of the Depression and the Second World War.