Europe,  Italy,  TDM,  Travel Journal,  Turin

Turin (Italy): The Museum of Cinema – part 3

Ciao! I hope everything is going well for you

Today, I take you to see the Cinema Museum in Turin, which is, along with the Egyptian Museum, a must-see in the city

Part 1: Travel Diary
Part 2: Practical Tips

Part 1: Travel Diary

Museum of Cinema

The museum is located inside a beautiful building called: Mole Antonelliana

The part that interests me the most is the first one, the one that presents the techniques and tools used at the beginning of cinema to create animated (or 3D) images
There are a lot of machines that I didn’t know about at all and that I particularly enjoy, since it’s made of paper (and I love anything fun and made of paper)

Shadow theater, sometimes with characters that can move their arms/legs

 

Create relief by superimposing scenes cut out of the paper

 

Peepshows

The above peepshows allow to see a landscape by day, and by night (with a light effect at the windows/lamps). For this, it is traditional cutting with colored and transparent papers stuck to the windows. Two lights are used to create either the day effect or the night effect. It’s very clever, but simple to set up

We are also explained (well, I didn’t take the audio guide but I read the written explanations in English) the fundamental rules of optics, what we learned in 10th grade, to explain the principle of photography and why the photographer saw the image upside down at that time

In the museum, there are red zones, easily identifiable, forbidden to minors (but without guardians, so parents have to watch their children), showing erotic “animated” images of the time (a series of photos that scroll very quickly). There are also phantasmagorical-type projections in small rooms (I didn’t hang it)

Then you take an elevator (a museum employee is in charge of operating this elevator) to the next floor to visit their collection of film posters, photos and actors’ costumes. A lot of old movies I don’t know at all, this part I visited very quickly

Then, one reaches a very large space in the middle of the building. In the center there is an elevator that you can take to go to the top
And all around, there are film sets (a bathroom, a living room from the 50’s, a laboratory…) to show us how good people who make movies are at re-creating reality. There are also masks from Star Wars, an alien and other objects from more or less old movies

“I am your father”

In the middle are reclining seats to watch the two large screens showing excerpts from well-known films. A huge staircase leads to the different levels, where one can take headphones and follow an exhibition (at the moment, it’s the evolution of music in cinema). The ceiling is exquisite

Ceiling of the Antonelliana Mole

Then, to take the elevator you have to go out into the lobby of the building (i.e. go down one floor) and wait in line for 10 minutes
The ascent in the elevator can make you feel dizzy, you feel really small. And we have the view on the whole city of Turin. It’s really cute, we understand better, by seeing all these small blocks of buildings, why there are so many piazza (square) in Turin

Turin seen from the Mole Antonelliana terrace

Tips: There is always a queue in front of the museum. In addition, there are people who enter with a queue-jumping ticket => the wait can be long
So if possible, come early or buy a ticket (with a schedule marked on it) on the Internet before coming. We opted for the combined ticket: museum + panoramic elevator
After passing the ticket inspectors, turn right and climb a few steps to get to the exhibition at the beginning of the movie theater. Do not continue to the end of the corridor because you may get lost, visiting the museum upside down.

Mangiare

We opt for the restaurant Crudo until in front of the museum. It is a chain of restaurants selling tartars and pizzas. The quality isn’t the same everywhere. In this case, the pizzas of this one are less good than the Crudo near us. Veal tartar is a specialty of the area. It is very very good

However, I don’t like the fact that the salads aren’t seasoned at all here, and when I do it myself, the result is catastrophic, it’s a great pity because it gives us that quality olive oil (and Italian), accompanied by quality balsamic vinegar (and Italian)

We then have dessert at the ice cream parlour next door, it’s super super good

Veal tartar. Italian ice

The equivalent of The Forks is thefork.it and in the city center there are many restaurants that can be booked on this site, sometimes with a discount. That’s how we discovered a lot of nice restaurants. However, in the city center, it’s expensive (40€ per meal for two). The Italians are always on vacations, the canteens are closed

Gourmet pizza and panna cotta at Taste It. Tartar at Crudo

But when they come back from vacations, at lunchtime, like the other workers, you can treat yourself to dishes at 7€ and drinks at 1€, like at Caffè Francia or Caffè Mokita

Typical lunch at an Italian canteen/café

It isn’t high gastronomy either, but it is eaten, they are generous in mozzarella (a whole piece that we cut ourselves). The plates are already prepared, we point what we want at the bar and they warm them up. Bread and cutlery are always charged, between 1€ and 3€/person

There is a kind of salad bar that I recommend, it’s Soup & Go, for lunch or dinner within 10€, in addition to having a beautiful garden-terrace

University of Turin

University of Turin

It is while walking around that we come across this university, so beautiful. It makes you want to go back to school

Baratti & Milano

Turin is well known for its chocolate. And one of the best known addresses to taste its hot chocolate is at Baratii & Milano
The setting is magnificent, leaning against a superb gallery (completely empty in August). The hot chocolate isn’t as thick as the one from Andalusia but it’s better like that

In Turin, while walking in the city center, you can come across some very beautiful things, not necessarily listed by the guides. The architecture remains homogeneous, with a good height under ceiling. There are fountains here and there. It’s really nice as a city

Since Turin is only 1 hour by train from Milan, I think we should have come here and used it as a base and made the round trip for the World Expo in Milan a few years ago (we wanted to go there but the hotels were absolutely out of price). But we didn’t know that!

Part 2: Practical Tips

Budget

  • Cinema museum: 15€ per ticket with elevator. 1,5€ more if you buy on the Internet (pre-sale fee)
  • Crudo : veal tartar in the 16€ range
  • Ice cream: about 3,4€ the average size
  • Taste It : 6 pieces of pizza for 18€ to 23€
  • Caffè Francia : dish from 7€
  • Caffè Mokita : menu from 9€
  • Soup & Go : salad from 6€
  • Transport: 0, everything is easily done on foot
  • Cuperto: cutlery + bread: between 1€ and 3€ as soon as you eat on the spot

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