I could resist calling this post 8 1/2, a tribute to the classic Italian film of the same name by Fellini.
Yesterday, we left mid-morning for Torino and the Cinema Museum. It’s about an hour’s drive from Barge, mostly on nice clean highway roads where drivers actually obey the rules and are courteous. Cars stay in their lanes – a stark contrast to the approach in Palermo. Marco parked the car on the street and we proceeded to one of the city’s big palazzos for the first caffé of the day. Then we walked a short distance to the museum that already had long queue. The Mole Antonelliana is a major landmark of Torino. It is named for the architect who built it, Alessandro Antonelli. Construction began in 1863 and was completed 26 years later, after the architect’s death. Nowadays it houses the National Museum of Cinema and it is believed to be the tallest museum in the world.
One of its attractions is a glass elevator that takes you to the top of the tower directly through the center of the building. Once you have arrived at the top, you can take in spectacular views of the city. Think of it as going to the top of the Empire State Building to see Manhattan and beyond.
After lunch in the museum restaurant (I had pasta), we started our tour. Let me begin by saying that this is simply the best cinema museum I have ever visited. UNBELIEVABLE in every respect – from design to its holdings. Its kind of like the Vatican museums for all things cinema. A cineste’s paradise.
The museum is divided in a number of sections, each devoted to a particular topic. For example, there is a section displaying movie posters, a section that imaginatively illustrates the movie-making process, a section devoted to the history of the Magic Lantern, and a section recalling how television and the movies have influenced our homes. TVs in the bathroom? Yup – they’ve got that too. And you can watch a short movie while sitting on a toilette. Very funny – everyone was laughing.
In the center of the ground floor is a large space containing red lounges with speakers built into the headrest area. Here, you can relax and watch one (or two, if you like) of the compilations they screen. I watched the one devoted to dancing in Italian movies. It does for dancing what Cinema Paradiso does for the movie kiss. Having spent four hours walking through the museum (I didn’t want to miss a thing), I looked forward to a few moments of putting up my tired feet.
Artifacts from some of my favorite movies (ones that I teach or have taught) enthralled me: giant movies posters for classics such as Rear Window, Stagecoach, Sunset Boulevard, and Citizen Kane; photos of Alfred Hitchcock at work, set designs from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari; and reproductions of nickelodeons (I had never seen one before), to name a few. All in all, a great experience and one that has enriched me tremendously.
We then had another caffé and a dessert before touring the rest of the city. I saw a few royal palaces (including Palazzo Reale) and a beautiful church, Reale Chiesa di San Lorenzo.
Torino is a beautiful town despite what the owner of a restaurant in Sicily told me. The city is sophisticated, easy on the eyes, and fairly easy to navigate. Long colonnades with plenty of shops line the streets. People are polite. One of the city’s large squares is the stage for performers ranging from a pianist playing a concert grand (and selling his CDs) to a mime, to a jazz trio. I spent about 30 minutes there taking photos.
We stopped in a couple of book shops, including a Virgin Megastore type place. Marco had promise his niece a new book. It was now about 8:30 and time for dinner at a restaurant at which Marco had made a reservation earlier in the day. The place was crowded (a good sign), and the food was terrific. I ordered a combination of fried shrimp and calimari. Also had appetizers and some white wine.
I wanted ice cream for dessert, so Marco suggested we walk to a gelateria (ice cream shop in Italian). The place is called GROM (www.grom.it). If you ever find yourself in Torino, visit GROM. The ice cream is great, and the store prides itself on its ethical business model. They are part of Italy’s Slow Food Movement – an anti-fast food cause. The owner is a young guy who has used his family’s fortune to start the business.
While watching tv at the hotel in Palermo one evening before going to bed, I saw a story about The Purple People, an anti-Berlusconi group. At dinner the night before, I asked Marco and his family if they had ever heard of them. They hadn’t. But lo and behold in Torino I saw clear evidence of The Purple People. (Supporters, who wear their political feelings on their body, don something purple to show their solidarity.) This particular group had a table in a square and sold purple tee shirts, etc. It’s difficult to be really sure if someone wearing purple is a supporter, because if you look in the shop window, purple seems to be the color of the season.
At about 10 p.m.,we started the one-hour drive home, but not before Marco made a slight detour to point out a few last points of interest, including the hunting grounds and the hunting lodge (looked more like a palace) of a former king.
Once home, I downloaded my pictures from the day and made a few choices for this post.
Today, March 15, Marco is at work, and he has graciously allowed me to make myself at home at his place. (The place in which he lives used to be a bordello.) I made myself breakfast and will focus on organizing my thought for my PALLIUM article, which I have started.
Pretty much everything is closed in Barge on Monday, so even if I wanted to walk around the town there wouldn’t be much to see or do. As I previously wrote, Barge is a very quiet town, populated by many Chinese who are employed primarily as masons. It’s quite odd. (Authorities recently found a Chinese man hanged inside a Catholic Church. Speculation exists that he may have been murdered elsewhere by the Chinese mafia and his body put on display in this closed church. They found a bag of oranges outside the church, but no one is really sure what the abandoned oranges symbolize, if anything.
Marco’s sister-in-law came by to accompany me to Mrs. Bovero’s house for lunch. Marco and his two nieces joined us. We had a fine lunch of ravioli, chicken, potatoes, and salad. Fruit and cookies for dessert. Now I back at Marco’s house, where I will continue to work on my PALLIUM story.
Below are pictures from Torino. Top-bottom, left-right: Alps in Barge, fruit vendor in Barge, in queue for the cinema museum, me sitting in a piazza, inside the museum, detail of Palazzo Madama, piano player in piazza, the Purple People, Italian poster for Rear Window, street performer, view of Torino from top of Mole Antonelliana, me with Marco’s brother, mother, sister-in-law, and niece, woman on the street.
