From Ancient Art to Modern Technology in Turin

[Regions of Italy]

Very few Americans and probably few other non-Italians visit Torino. That's a shame. It's a beautiful city with a rich history, the cradle of Italian liberty, from which Camillo Cavour and the Savoy family launched the Risorgimento that reunited Italy in the 1860's. Seat of the Savoy dynasty since 1574, it became the first capital of the new Italy when Vittorio Emanuele I was crowned its first king. It later became the capital of Italy's current "royal" dynasty, the Agnellis, who own Fiat and a host of other properties including newspapers, hotels and the Juventus professional soccer team.

Torino sits on the banks of the Po River at the base of the Alps. It was largely reconstructed by the Savoys, who created broad, sweeping avenues, large public squares and Baroque arcaded facades. Dominating its skyline is the Mole Antonelliana, a bizarrely domed monument to the Risorgimento. The best views of the city and the Alps are from across the river at the grandiose Basilica di Superga, a Baroque shrine built in thanks for deliverance from invading French and Spanish troops. Also in the suburbs is Stupinigi, the flamboyant Rococo hunting lodge of the Savoys.

Plenty of historical sites, good restaurants, nice stores, good public transportation and friendly people all make a visit to Torino worthwhile. My favorite places are two large but not well-known museums, the Egyptian Museum and the Automobile Museum. Actually, these are two of my favorite museums in the world.

IL MUSEO EGIZIO: The Egyptian Museum

The Savoy family was powerful and wealthy for centuries. Like most really rich people, they collected things. Among the things they liked were Egyptian antiquities; they started hoarding in 1628 and eventually collected enough to fill a museum, especially between 1894 and 1929, when the Italians were granted digging rights at several rich Egyptian sites. Beginning in the late 18th century, they opened their collection to the public, thus creating the first museum devoted to Egypt. It is older and only slightly smaller in size than Cairo's National Museum. As one food writer has pointed out, the benefit of visiting Torino instead of Cairo is that the hotels and restaurants are better! And ever since the Winter Olympics of 2006, when the museum was totally reorganized, this is probably the premier Egyptian museum of the world for anyone who reads Italian or English, because (unlike the larger museum in Cairo) the Museo Egizio offers copious explanations of everything on display, providing a fascinating and comprehensive understanding of what ancient Egypt was all about.

Your approach to the Egyptian Museum does not prepare you for what is inside. The museum is in Torino's Science Academy, underneath the Galleria Sabauda, which houses the Savoy collection of European Art. The building is large and rather bland from outside, and the entrance is small and unassuming, with only one attendant selling tickets. However, once inside, you enter an entirely different world.

What makes this collection of Egyptian antiquities exciting for the visitor is its sheer size and enormous variety. All periods of ancient Egypt are represented, from 3000 BC to 395 AD. You start in the basement, where an original section of Turin's Roman wall (30 BC-14 AD) accompanies a wonderful commentary, large-scale photographs and countless relics from the pre-dynastic eras, providing an understanding of who the people that created this astounding civilization were, where they came from and why they did what they did. Upstairs, the collection is simply breathtaking. There isn't just one mummy, there are literally hundreds. There aren't a few apothecary jars or funeral statuettes, there are thousands. Chapter Ten of the Book of the Dead is on the wall, in its hieroglyphic entirety. The contents of several tombs are also complete and include statues of the deceased, miniatures of servants and other people who could represent the deceased in the Afterlife, people making bread and beer to sustain them, boats to convey them, tools in case they needed to fix anything, and personal hygiene accessories so they'd always look good. From towering Sphinx-like sculptures to tiny glass vials for cosmetics, no type of surviving artifact is missing. The collection's scale is overwhelming.

Two features merit special mention. One is the Tomb of Kha, the burial chamber of a 1400 B.C. architect and his wife. The chamber was transported intact from the archeological sites of Dair-el-Medina before World War I, and it contains all of the necessary items of daily life, from the husband's drafting tools to the wife's cosmetic case. There's a bed, clothing, cooking and eating utensils, even a board game for recreation in the hereafter. The other notable feature is the Rock Temple of El-Elessiya, which escaped inundation by the Aswan Dam and was reassembled in Torino in the 1960's. The temple dates from the 15th century B.C. and bears extensive bas-reliefs of Pharaoh Thutmose III.

Since the renovation, the curators have made this one of the most user-friendly museums we know. Each of the beautiful mummies lies in its original single or double sarcophagus, painted with eyes so the deceased could "see" out, and often embellished with the bird Ba, who could fly out of the tomb and run errands. There are many displays where items appear in scholarly reproductions of scenes from everyday life in ancient Egypt. The most dramatic room is the vast chamber filled with life-size or larger statues of the pharaohs, their wives and their courtiers. Labels help us put a story to the faces of these long-gone functionaries.

One comes away from the museum with a new appreciation of ancient Egypt, which was clearly an educated and populous society that prospered for centuries but which no longer exists. I think the museum raises an important question: how can a civilization so large and complex decline and ultimately disappear? What does that say about the mortality of our own civilization? While pondering these questions, just remember that the museum is closed on Mondays.
Click here for more pictures.

IL MUSEO DELL'AUTOMOBILE: The Automobile Museum

Hispano Suiza
Given that Torino is the headquarters of Fiat, it is not surprising to find the Automobile Museum in town. In fact, the Agnelli family is its major benefactor, with both financial donations and gifts from the family garages. The majestic Museo dell'Automobile sits about two miles south of central Torino, on bluffs overlooking the Po River. The building was completed in 1960 and appears to be related architecturally to the likes of Dulles Airport. Both its setting and its architecture tell you it's an important place. But surprisingly, it is not a monument to the Agnellis. It's an authentic tribute to the history of the automobile.

Isotta Fraschini

The collection begins with the earliest self-propelled vehicles and carries through to the present. Unlike most American automotive museums, there is not an emphasis on luxury coach-built automobiles of the 20's and 30's. Nor is undue attention paid to the automobile's impact on society. The emphasis is on technology and the development of safer, faster motorcars. There are some stunning examples of custom coachwork from its heyday in the 30's, including the Isotta Franchini used by Gloria Swanson in the movie Sunset Boulevard (her character Norma Desmond's initials "N.D." are painted on the front doors). But there are far more examples of production cars which incorporated important innovations and racing cars where most of those innovations were first tested.

Model T

After a visit to most any American automotive museum, you will leave convinced that the U.S. is the only country to have made any contribution to the development of the car. This, of course, is not true. The first car was not even built in the U.S. What you learn in this museum is that the development of the car has been an international achievement. Significant contributions of automotive engineers from Italy, France, Germany, the U.K., the U.S. and Japan are all recognized.

Itala

There are many Fiats in the collection, including the first model made in 1899, but the most celebrated car is not a Fiat or a movie star's car. The centerpiece of the collection is the 1907 Itala which won the Peking to Paris race in 44 days the year it was built. This car is so beloved that it is even the subject of a book, Luigi Barzini Sr.'s Peking to Paris. After you read the book, you will definitely want to see this car. But don't go on Monday, because the museum is closed.

Sims Brannon, Los Angeles

Il Museo Egizio is at Via Accademia delle Scienze 6, tel. 011-561-7776. Open Sept. 10-June 10, Tues-Sun 8:30am-7:30pm; June 11-Sept 9, Tues-Sun 9:30am-8:30pm. There is an audio guide but the printed information throughout the museum is so excellent that we don't think you need it.
Il Museo dell'Automobile Carlo Biscaretti di Ruffia is at Corso Unità d'Italia 40, tel. 011-677-666. The museum is currently closed. Click here for their website.
Basilica di Superga is on route S590, about 15 miles east of Turin. To get there, take tram 15 from Via XX Settembre and then the shuttle bus, or, from June to September, enjoy the 20-minute cable car ride from Stazione Sassi. Open daily 8-12:30 and 3-5. No admission charge.
Palazzo Stupinigi is on route S23 about 7 miles south of Turin, also reached by bus 41 from Corso Vittorio Emanuele. Open 10-12 and 3-5 except Mon and Fri. Admission charge, and you must take the guided tour, in Italian.

Luigi Barzini, Sr.'s book Peking to Paris is a fascinating compendium of black and white photos taken all along the route, supplemented by Barzini's witty eyewitness commentary. Click here for more information.

[Regions of Italy]