ON A rainy day in Glasgow, Sophia Loren gazes wistfully across the city, as starry-eyed shoppers gathered below in the hope of catching a glimpse of their idol.

The famous actor was in town on December 8, 1982, to promote her new fragrance, Sophia, by Coty, which was on sale in Lewis’s department store on Argyle Street.

A week earlier, the Evening Times ran a competition for readers to win the chance to have lunch with her at the Albany Hotel.

“It’s the stuff dreams are made of,” the report said. “People will call you a storyteller … because who is going to believe you had lunch with Sophia Loren?”

Sophia was born in Rome in 1934 and while working as a model, was spotted by director Carlo Ponti. By her late teens, she was playing lead roles in many Italian features such as La Favorita in 1952 and Aida a year later.

She went on to star in many famous movies, including El Cid and Man of La Mancha and remains one of Hollywood’s most recognisable stars.

During her visit, she spoke to the press about her new perfume.

“I had no idea how much time and effort and professional know-how went into producing such a range,” she was reported as saying in the Evening Times, which described the scent as a “classic floral one with Oriental undertones and a basic amber tone,” adding bizarrely that it “makes any man think of Sophia Loren and any woman feel she could be that lovely…” Different times.

The picture of the “raven-haired screen goddess” had the caption: “Sophia – now an incredible 47 years old”, and the report said she was “mobbed by starry-eyed shoppers”.

READ MORE: Times Past: Italian actress Sophia Loren stares across Glasgow in historic snap

Dressed in “high-heeled black boots, red and black dress and black silk scarf, draped fashionably around her neck, and dripping in gold rather than diamonds,” Sophia arrived 25 minutes late for a champagne reception.

She said chilly Glasgow reminded her of “northern Italy” and she answered questions about everything from her movies to her love life with aplomb.

“No-one talks, no-one makes me laugh,” she joked when the press corps fell uncharacteristically silent.

“Can you say it’s a braw, bricht moonlicht nicht?” one reporter asked.

The Evening Times’ sister newspaper The Herald reports: “She raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Nicht”, she mused. “Isn’t that German?”

She added that the Scottish accent must be like the Neapolitan one – incomprehensible except to those who were thoroughly familiar with it.

When asked about the weather, she replied with a shudder: “I can’t live without the sun. When I don’t see it, I get very depressed.

She spoke of her future films, including plans that Ken Russell had to have her star as Maria Callas in a movie version of the opera singer’s life and of her current home in Switzerland, not far from Charlie Chaplin’s old home in Geneva.

When asked what she thought of Glasgow, she replied, diplomatically: “The people are very nice, wonderfully welcoming, but I haven’t seen much of the city, as I just got in late last night.”

l Do you recall Sophia Loren’s visit to Glasgow in December 1982? Share your stories and photos with us by emailing ann,fotheringham@heraldandtimes.co.uk.