Podestà was born in
Tripoli in the Italian
colony of
Libya. She spent her first years there, moving with her parents to
Rome after
World War II. At sixteen she was discovered by director
Léonide Moguy during the preparation of the cast for the film
Tomorrow Is Another Day; this inaugurated her film career. She participated in sixty films, both in Italy and abroad.
Marriage In Italy, she resided in
Dubino (
Sondrio province). She married movie producer
Marco Vicario, and they later divorced. From 1980 she lived with
Walter Bonatti, a journalist and mountain explorer. He died alone in 2011, aged 81, at a private clinic; its management would not allow his partner to be with him because the two were not married. On 10 December 2013, Podestà died in
Rome, aged 79. ==Acting career==