Mole Antonelliana and Museo Nazionale del Cinema

The Mole Antonelliana is the defining landmark of Turin, in Piedmont, Italy, a 167.5 metre tower at Via Montebello 20 on the edge of Vanchiglia and the Centro Storico. Begun by the architect Alessandro Antonelli in the 1860s as a synagogue and completed under the city's ownership, it stands among the tallest masonry buildings in Europe and appears on the Italian two-cent euro coin. Since 2000 it has housed the Museo Nazionale del Cinema, one of the leading cinema museums in the world. The museum's route spirals up through the vast central hall under the tower's dome, with themed areas covering pre-cinema optical toys and shadow theatres, the technology of early film, the history of Italian and international cinema, and a set-like Temple Hall with reclining chairs from which films are projected onto the walls. Posters, costumes, props and equipment fill the ramps, and a rising section lets visitors look down into the hall from above. A separate glass panoramic lift travels up inside the central void to a terrace at about 85 metres, where views extend across the red roofs of Turin, the Po river, the Superga hill and, on clear days, the Alpine arc. Visitors typically spend two to three hours for the museum and about an hour for the lift alone. Queues for the lift are longest at midday, at weekends and around sunset in good weather, and the museum is calmest on weekday mornings right after opening. The terrace is exposed and can be windy, so a light layer is useful outside summer. Photographers get a classic view of the tower from Via Montebello and from the Po embankment, and the sunset terrace offers the best light for city panoramas. The tower sits roughly fifteen minutes on foot from Piazza Castello along Via Po, which makes it easy to pair with a walk through central Turin.