Our first full day found us in the city of Torino. Torino is in the northwest of Italy in the foothills of the Alps near the border with France. Torino was the principal capital city of the Savoia, a powerful, wealthy family whose kingdom encompassed a large region which includes parts of what are now France and Italy. As the seat of their power it was a bustling hub of commerce and culture. That importance began to fade once the unification of Italy was underway in the 1860’s and the capital of the newly formed country moved south. The city enjoyed a recent rejuvenation as it hosted the 2006 Winter Olympics, with venues both in the city proper and outside in the nearby mountains. That event created an infrastructure investment and general sprucing up which is still evident, making Torino a very nice place to visit today.
Originally conceived as a Jewish synagogue, it was at one point the tallest building in Italy standing some 167 meters tall. Midway through an overly lengthy building process which saw construction costs soar to multiples of the original budget, the Jewish community struck a deal with the city of Torino, giving the unfinished building to the city for a piece of land where a more modestly scaled temple was quickly realized. The building never saw use for its intended purpose and since 2000 has hosted the National Museum of the Cinema, making it the tallest museum in the world. They are now hosting a retrospective of Fritz Lang’s masterpiece Metropolis, bringing together rare stills, scripts, scores and memorabilia in a gallery which spirals up the empty interior of the structure. You can see the advertisment for the exhibit in the picture below of a clearly happy Amy.
Unfortunately, the group was requested to leave due to a misunderstanding of the guidelines for our visit before we were able to ride the glass elevator up the middle of the building to the observation deck at the top.
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