Visiting Turin, Italy’s First Capital, Turin, Italy

As I sat on the train at Milan Central Station, I felt a wave of fatigue taking over my body. I could detect a small headache and my throat was complaining a little. My nose had started to run water. I cursed to myself. Was I really getting ill? I even almost fell asleep once the train started going, but I managed to keep myself awake. One of my favourite things about train rides is the chance to see the scenery of the country, and I didn’t want to miss the white peaks of the Alps contrasting against the flatness of the fields I was passing through.

I did get a little sick, but popped some ibuprofen down my throat and got on with it. It does mean that my mood wasn’t the best, and my willingness to pick up the camera, and actually explore was much affected. Still, that same afternoon, I had booked to go to the famous National Museum of Cinema of Turin - mostly because there was a Tim Burton exhibition on, and I couldn’t believe my luck. I had missed previous exhibits in different cities, and as a fan of his work (I had to go watch for the hundredth time Edward Scissorhands that night) I was really excited to go.

Now, the Museum itself is fantastic. Engaging, with multiple points for interaction. It goes over the all history of the moving image, with really good content to explore. They call that section the Archaeology of Cinema, which I thought was quite right. When you get to the main room is like you have entered a parallel world. If you look your eyes will catch the elevator to the panoramic view of the building. But adjacent to that there are so many little rooms, each one put together with a different scenario in mind inspired by movies from very different genres. It is quite fun especially if you are a cinema aficionado. Now, here’s what disappointed me in the Museum - it seems to be getting a little run down! Firstly, the cloakroom was closed. It said out of order and this made my visit a bit uncomfortable as it was quite hot inside and I had to carry around my backpack, scarf and mass winter coat. In the Archaeology part of it there were also quite a few things broken and out of order, and some of the rooms had a very bad stench, as if they hadn’t been cleaned for a while. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).