There's no way to adequately describe the Mole Antonelliana using mere words. Perhaps that's why Italy put it on the back of its 2 eurocent pieces.
This way, Italians can just show it to people without having to try and explain what it looks like: a pile of Neoclassical temples (with Gothic elements) stacked atop on another, topped by a vast, four-sided curving pyramid, then another double-stack of temples from which sprouts a rounded spire reaching to an improbable 550 feet.
The overall effect is, surprisingly, not ugly, though a bit hard to get used to. It even briefly reigned as the tallest building in Europe—it's still the continent's tallest brickwork structure—and was built, of all things, as a synagogue back in the 1860s.
As if all that was weird enough, in 2000 the thing was turned into the National Museum of Cinema (www.museonazionaledelcinema.it), a truly engaging showcase of the history of film around the world and in Italy spread across five levels.
There is a ton of interactive displays on the science, art, and industry of movie-making, a great collection of silver screen artifacts (from original scripts to Lawrence of Arabia's robe to Fellini's scarf and hat), and a phantasmagoria of flickering scenes played out on the walls of the vast, soaring interior as ten movies are screened simultaneously side-by-side (earphones and easy chairs are available).
Make sure you climb into one the glass elevators suspended in the middle of the atrium for a vertiginous, Willy Wonka–worthy ride up to the spire's observation deck and a view that, on clear days, reaches as far as France and Switzerland.
Via Montebello, 20
tel. +39-011 8138-560/561
www.museocinema.it
Mon, Wed–Fri, Sun : 9am–8pm
Sat 9am–11pm
€10
Bus: ST1; 24, 68v
Hop-on/hop-off: TK
Planning your day: TK.
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Via Montebello, 20
tel. +39-011 8138-560/561
www.museocinema.it
Mon, Wed–Fri, Sun : 9am–8pm
Sat 9am–11pm
€10
Bus: ST1; 24, 68v
Hop-on/hop-off: TK