The Italian Job (1969)

The primary reason we came to Torino is because the original Italian Job movie, starring Michael Caine in 1969, was filmed in Torino. A British couple has emigrated here and runs a tour. Well, a few months ago they stopped running the tour, but they did put together a self-guided tour of sites that were in the movie. We visited many of the sites yesterday to the north, in the center of downtown. Today we headed south on foot.

In the movie, three Mini Coopers and an Alfa Romeo police car chasing them all drove up onto the roof. Only the Minis were able to make it all the way, the police car headed back down, rear first, its engine just didn't have enough oompf.

This building, the Palavela, is now a major Olympic venue, for my favorite sport, figure skating! http://www.torino2006.org/ENG/OlympicGames/vieni_a_torino2006/torino_palavela.html
The building used to have walls, but they were removed in 2002 and a new building was built under the same roof. This was the first building to be completed for the Olympics and was inaugarated by the first performance in February 2004.

The building was originally built as an aircraft musem. The whole area was built 100 years ago as a celebration of Italy's 1761 unification.

We ate at a pizzeria across the street. It was a Cinese Pizzeria - Chinese restaurant that also served pizza. It was a different experience for me to hear a Chinese face speak Italian - I am so used to the native tongue or broken English!