We spent this week as full-time tourists in Torino. We visited museums and palaces as well as a few events at the Torino Jazz Festival. This was our last full week here in Italy and we wanted to enjoy what we could. We saved all these activities for this last week of April, hoping that we would have nice spring weather. Well…the weather took a turn back toward the wintery, but we reluctantly dragged the warm clothing out of the closet, bundled up, and made the most of it.

Museums and Palaces

We bought a pass for the museums and palaces of Torino for the week, which was a great bargain. We would ride the 45 minutes into the city on the bus, walk around town to the various locations, then grab a bite to eat and hop on the bus or tram to travel home. Here are the museums that we visited:

Palazzo Reale di Torino

The family of Savoy set up the center of their rule in Torino and then went on to rule the country when Italy was unified. When the monarchy was abolished in the 20th century, the state seized the property of the family and now there are many museums featuring their buildings and possessions. We visited the main palace which houses the royal residence as well as the Savoy’s collection of art. We saw some truly wild interiors, the royal armory, and some nice paintings and sculpture. The gardens there are also nice.

Biblioteca Reale

The royal library had a temporary exhibit of some of the drawings of Leonardo da Vinci. Since we have been studying his life, we wanted to make sure to catch that. There wasn’t a lot, but his very famous self-portrait was breathtaking and the other drawings were so beautiful. The library itself was nice to visit as well.

Mole Antonelliana

This building has an iconic dome that has (controversially) become a symbol of the city. It houses an excellent cinema museum that starts with an exhibit on optics, traces the precursors to motion pictures, and then has multiple themed rooms playing excerpts from films. There is also a gallery of (mostly Italian) movie posters. It was surprisingly fun.

Lavazza

The coffee company started by Luigi Lavazza is headquartered in Torino and they have a fun museum on the history of the company and how coffee is grown, harvested, and processed. It was educational.

Museo Egizio

We learned that the Egyptian museum in Torino has the largest collection of Egyptian artifacts outside of Egypt. It was founded in 1824. The museum offered a good trip through Ancient Egypt, starting in the pre-dynastic period and progressing through the various eras of Egyptian antiquity. It was interesting, but also just what you would expect from an Egyptian museum.

 La Venaria Reale

When we arrived in Torino at the beginning of March, we really didn’t know much about the area or history. However, we saw that our apartment wasn’t far from this palace and so we thought we would probably visit at some point. It was the last one we visited and we are so glad we didn’t miss it. It was built as a royal residence for hunting and entertainment in the mid-17th century. After Napoleon invaded, the palace was used as a military barracks and then eventually fell into a state of neglect and disrepair. Since 1999, they have worked to rebuild some of the complex and gardens and it is quite beautiful. The gardens are nice and the parts of the house that they have been able to restore are beautiful. The most famous part is the long and airy Galleria Grande. Stunning!

Jazz Festival

We were looking forward to possibly enjoying some live music during the Torino Jazz Festival. They offered some concerts with free admission and others for a reasonable rate. We attended three events.

The first was in a small venue that ended up being standing room only. It was two ladies singing with a back-up band of piano, drums, and bass. They performed a lot of Cole Porter songs in a pretty standard style. We enjoyed the show.

The second was in a black box venue associated with a restaurant in town. It was a trumpeter, electric bass, and drums. The trumpet player was running the show. He had looping device and would record himself playing the trumpet, but also singing and other vocalizations. It ended up feeling a lot like a heavy metal trumpet ensemble! It was wild, but not bad.

The last show was…ummm…weird. It was in the smaller theater at the opera house and was billed as some sort of tribute to Duke Ellington. It featured a pianist and basically a DJ. They projected video and photos on a screen. The pianist played a lot of complicated stuff. The DJ sampled a recording and what the pianist was playing and messed with that. The problem was that it felt like complete chaos for the entire show. There was never a moment when it felt like the parts were working together. That was perhaps why it was our last show!

We are starting to pack things up in preparation to leave Italy and head back to the north. We have really enjoyed our time here and we have learned a lot. We look forward to returning soon.