Cinematic Turin

Its history is less peaceful than the view. A year after the end of the French occupation it was proposed to demolish it, because many saw it as the symbol of the rule that had just ended. It was King Vittorio Emanuele I himself who objected, and the bridge and the square took his name. Today it is one of the most photographed spots in Turin: from the Piazza Vittorio bank the Gran Madre enters the frame together with the bridge.

In Fast X, the tenth chapter of Fast & Furious released in 2023, it even changes river: during the chase with the spherical bomb it stands in for a crossing of the Tiber near the Vatican. The production alternated shooting in Rome and in Turin, exploiting the similarity of some urban settings.

Walking across the bridge you see the river from another perspective. Once you reach Piazza Vittorio, you can go down to the Murazzi.

The Murazzi appear in Fast X, which used several stretches of the Po banks for the action sequences. This riverside is also among the settings of Guida astrologica per cuori infranti, the Netflix series based on Silvia Zucca's novel and shot largely in Turin. A walk here shows a city quite different from that of the great squares.

And yet the Mole had not been designed to house a museum. Alessandro Antonelli designed it in 1862 as a synagogue; after various construction vicissitudes, it was completed at the end of the nineteenth century. Since 2000 it has housed the Museo Nazionale del Cinema, which also appeared among the locations of Guida astrologica per cuori infranti. If you want to see the collections, give the visit the time it deserves: it is not a simple stop during the walk.

Today it is part of the activities of the Museo Nazionale del Cinema and hosts contemporary films, retrospectives, talks and festivals, including the Torino Film Festival, CinemAmbiente and the Lovers Film Festival. It is a stop unlike the others: here you do not come to recognise a scene shot in the street, but to find a place where cinema continues to be screened and discussed. If the programme intrigues you, you can stay for a screening.

The gardens preserve part of the layout of the old Giardino dei Ripari, developed in the nineteenth century on the site of the earlier fortifications. It is above all the façades of the buildings around the square, one beside the other, that made it possible to recreate the period without rebuilding the streets entirely in the studio.

It was Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy-Carignano who commissioned the palace from Guarino Guarini in 1679. Among the external decorations are stylised figures with feathered headdresses, referring to Native Americans. Inside, the rooms are arranged around an oval atrium.

The palace later housed the Subalpine Parliament. Today it is home to the Museo Nazionale del Risorgimento Italiano, which preserves the hall of the Chamber of Deputies inaugurated in 1848.

On the opposite side, towards piazza Carlo Alberto, the façade changes completely: it belongs to the nineteenth-century extension.

If you have seen The Law According to Lidia Poët, you will probably recognise this façade: in the television series it represents the exterior of the Turin courthouse.

The courthouse, however, was built for television using different places. The interior scenes were shot in other buildings, including the former Curia Maxima and Palazzo Barolo. Palazzo Carignano lent only its exterior, though it was never really the seat of the court.

From the square you can find the shot from the series again, this time without the need for a camera.

It was designed by Carlo di Castellamonte and construction began in 1637. On the southern side stand the twin churches of San Carlo Borromeo and Santa Cristina; the façade of the latter was designed by Filippo Juvarra and built between 1715 and 1717.

In the centre of the square, the nineteenth-century equestrian monument by Carlo Marochetti depicts Emmanuel Philibert and commemorates the victory of Saint-Quentin in 1557. For the Turinese it is simply 'l caval 'd brôns, the bronze horse.

In the film Fast X, released in 2023, piazza San Carlo played the part of a square in Rome. During filming in 2022, the scene in which a truck releases the huge spherical bomb destined to roll through the streets of the capital was shot here.

In the editing, the Turin footage was combined with shots of piazza del Popolo. The two side-by-side churches helped make the substitution believable.

If you remember that sequence, it will be quite something to find the square in its usual calm.

The rest of the setting is still recognisable: the rationalist layout of the 1930s, the façades of the buildings and the two great fountains representing the Po and the Dora Riparia, the work of the sculptor Umberto Baglioni. The Blue Bar disappeared after filming, but the scenes can be found again even without it.

The palazzo is a noble residence from the late seventeenth century, linked to the family of the marquises of Barolo. In the nineteenth century it was the home of Tancredi and Giulia Falletti, known for their philanthropic initiatives, and it also hosted the writer Silvio Pellico. Here the aristocratic rooms that cinema and television use to portray nineteenth-century Turin can be seen up close. Unlike many private buildings used for filming, Palazzo Barolo does in fact have spaces open to visitors, according to the access arrangements set by the institution.

Those who have seen Dario Argento's Deep Red, released in 1975, will recognise the so-called "Villa of the Screaming Child". In the film the protagonist Marc Daly explores the building and discovers, under a layer of plaster, a drawing that is important for solving the mystery. The villa is outside the film route of the historic centre, but from our B&B you can reach it with an uphill walk, even as a visit in its own right.