La Strada means "the road".

La Strada means "the road". There are always roads in the film, on which Zampano (Antony Quinn) and Gelsomina (Giulietta Masina) leave her home town, go to the city, leave the city, enter the chapel...Gelsomina likes to stare at the sea or the fire. Her property is like the property of a fairy, such as fire, wind, water, soil etc. It might represent the pureness that she has her inside. Once she's learned a music, she keeps playing it and her song is always admired by the people, but it seems especially by middle age women (the lady in the chapel or the lady drying a laundry). I don't see whether she likes Zampano but, at least, she feels sad if she is ignored by Zampano especially when he goes out with other girls. It may be because her role that she is given by her family, which is to work as Zampano's wife. However, the role of the wife is much different than nowadays. It seems like a helper or a servant for Zampano. A good servant may sometime become a good partner. Zampano may realize it at the end but it is too late. He could't tolerate her pureness (feeling of guilty about the murder) and he abandoned her. Gelsomina is too pure and weak like fairy and can't survive in this harsh era. In 1957, the Tokyo tower started its construction in Japan. This tower is sometimes referred as a symbol of Japan to recover from the WWII. La Strada was first released in 1954. Italy lost the war with Japan. Italy might still sink under anxious when the film was released. The title of the film may imply a hope or it may just simply represent that they were losing their ways (wondering their future).