Palazzo Lancia

Palazzo Lancia (Lancia Palace), also known as Grattacielo Lancia (Lancia Skyscraper), is a high-rise building located in the northern Italian city of Turin. It was originally commissioned by Gianni Lancia, president and son of the founder of Italian automobile manufacturer Lancia, to serve as main headquarters for the company.

Palazzo Lancia is built like a bridge over Via Vincenzo Lancia, which passes underneath it. In such a position it joined together the northern and southern halves of Lancia's Borgo San Paolo plant, which was crossed by the pre-existing road as it had been built and acquired in various stages between the 1910s and the 1940s as Lancia's operations grew. Most of the building consists of office space, with an added meeting room for the top board of the manufacturer's executives. 

From 1957 the building served its intended function of Lancia's management and technical headquarter. In 1969, Fiat S.p.A. took over a heavily indebted Lancia from the Pesenti family, and with it the ownership of Palazzo Lancia. By the 1990s Fiat started to move offices away, progressively emptying the building.

In March 2005, Fiat S.p.A. sold the unoccupied Grattacielo to Torino 05, a joint venture between real estate firms Beni Stabili and Gefim (42.5% each) and Fiat Partecipazioni (15%). In 2008 another real estate developer, Patio Immobiliare, purchased in turn the building for a reported 15 million Euros, planning to transform it into luxury flats. After having carried out some renewal work the company filed for bankruptcy in 2013; Palazzo Lancia is currently awaiting to be auctioned to pay off its owner's debts.

Location : Palazzo Lancia 

Chinese New Year In Turin Part 3

While the 3 days celebration outside the Rinascente shopping center was exciting and vibrant, the events inside the shopping center were more tranquil and artistic.

 There was a different performance on each level of the shopping center, the ground level was a caligraphy demo, and one the other levels were muscians playing harp, Guzheng and lute.

 On each level, there was also the display of fashion designed by chinese designer Luna Chen.

Chinese New Year In Turin Part 2

The excellent performance of the artist heated up the atmosphere and the audience awarded him with a long round of applauds.

The 3 days celebration concluded with the traditional chinese dragon and lion dance.

Chinese New Year In Turin Part 1

To celebrate the Chinese New Year, the chinese community in Turin together with the Rinascente Shopping center organised a 3 days events celebration.

I was only able to catch on time the third day's event, an exciting performance with fire. Followed by the chinese dragon and lion.

Location : Via Lagrange, Rinascente

Portici Series Via Viotti

Via Viotti is a small street parallel to via Roma. it is also where I used to live.

There used to be a serie of shops under the arcade, but in recent years the shops closed down one after the other and now it is more or less just an empty arcade.

Location : Via Viotti

Different But Same

Quite an interesting scene in Piazza Castello, along the castle there are benches where people can sit down and take a rest, any kind of people, black, white, rich, poor, local, tourist, pretty, ugly....
The benches don't discriminise.

Saw these two men, each sat on a separate bench, one white, one black, one bulky and one skinny.
The other common thing between them beside they were sitting on a bench is that they were both busy looking at their mobile phone. 

Location : Piazza Castello

Great Tit

The Ruffini park (locally known as "the New Valentino") is the 16th largest park in the city of Turin. It extends for a size of about 130,000 m², inserted in the Pozzo Strada district.
It was the first time I came to this park, was delighted to see many squirrels wondering around, although they shown to be less daring than those in Valentino Park, but still they came forward to pick up the nuts I threw at them.
Then, came this little bird and it started to rob the nuts from the squirrels.

After some research online, I found out that it is a great tit ( what a name! ).

The great tit (Parus major) is a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae. It is a widespread and common species throughout Europe, the Middle East, Central and Northern Asia, and parts of North Africa where it is generally resident in any sort of woodland; most great tits do not migrate except in extremely harsh winters. Until 2005 this species was lumped with numerous other subspecies. DNA studies have shown these other subspecies to be distinctive from the great tit and these have now been separated as two distinct species, the cinereous tit of southern Asia, and the Japanese tit of East Asia. The great tit remains the most widespread species in the genus Parus. 

 The great tit is a distinctive bird with a black head and neck, prominent white cheeks, olive upperparts and yellow underparts, with some variation amongst the numerous subspecies.

Now, I will tell my friends that I had gone to the Ruffini park to take photos of some Great Tits!

Cittè Di Cinema

On the 9th of November Turin became a city of cinema: on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the opening of the National Museum of Cinema at the Mole Antonelliana and the birth of the Turin Piedmont Film Commission, 2020 will be the year of Turin, City of Cinema, a special program of events to celebrate the seventh art in the city.

The relationship between Turin and cinema is a double-strand bond that has its roots in the past and has concreteness in a present in which cinema is capable of constantly making itself the protagonist of the city cultural life. A union that manifests itself on the one hand in the union between the Mole Antonelliana - symbol and icon of the city - and the National Cinema Museum hosted there and, on the other, in the numerous films that in recent years have brought Turin to the big screen showing its beauty and potential. A panorama that highlights a variety of entities, associations, institutes and laboratories that distinguishes Turin as excellence in the national and international panorama.

Full Moon Over The Po

Just happened to see a really low full moon slowly appeared ( seemed ) behind the Gran Madre Church over the other side of the river Po. By the time I walked further up, the moon appeared to be higher and further away from the church.
Was wondering whether to snap a few photos, but too lazy to set up the tripod again...so I rested the camera on the low wall above Murazzi where the actual river bank is and snapped 3, 4 photos using timer.

This is the result after merging the photos with photoshop.

Singing Group

Every now and then, in piazza Carignano, in front of the theatre, there are some performances, such as social dancing, music and singing.

This is a group of dressed up performing some songs....

Location : Piazza Carignano

Pretty Bridge

The Principessa Isabella bridge looks pretty under the pink sky.
The bridge was built between 1876 to 1880,  projected by Ernesto Giotti, it extends corso Dante over the river Po,  it has a lenght of 160 meters and width of 12 meters.

It is one of the most elegant and beautifully constructed bridge in Turin, and it is delicated to the Isabella, princess of Baviera who was married to Tommaso Alberto Vittorio of Savioia - Genova in 1883.

Location : Bridge Princess Isabella

Sir, Are You Looking At Me?

I love taking reflection especially on water, whenever there is a pond of water on the ground, I will bend down and try to see if the reflection of the surrounding is interesting to snap a photo.

In via Garibaldi, just after a rain, the reflection seemed interesting enough for a shot, so i did what I like to do. 

Didn't actually pay attention to the man standing there facing in my direction. Was he looking at me?

Homeless Dog

Nowadays almost every homeless has a dog, not sure where they got the dog from and how they manage to keep the dog in good condition. 
I think most of them keep the dog for company and to gain more sympathy from people to offer them some money.

Here is a dog guarding their home while the owner is away.

Location : Street Of Turin

Sleeping Under Luxury

This is in the Galleria San Federico, where there is a Montblanc luxury goods shop.
It is also a palce where some homeless tend to spend their night sleeping there, especially in the cold season.

Location : Galleria San Federico

Chilling Corner

In every cities, there must be at least one corner where we can chill, be quiet and relax our mind and body.

This is one in Cavallerizza Reale in Turin.

Location : Cavallerizza Reale

Evening By The Borgo Medievale

Take a walk on the opposite of the river Po, toward Moncalieri, on the other side of the river there is the Valentino park with the Valentino Castle and the Borgo Medievale ( Medieval Village ).

The Borgo Medievale was opened in 1884 during the Italian General Exhibition. It offers a reconstruction of late medieval buildings and decorations carried out on the basis of strict philological criteria.

The inspiration of the Medieval Village came from over 40 sites and retraced the artistic and architectural features of 15th century buildings throughout Piedmont and Aosta Valley.

The village includes streets, squares, fountians, fortifications, decoration and frescoes, real houses and artisan workshops.

The Rocca or fortress is a fortified aristocratic residence whose rooms are richly decorated with furnitures, accessaries and fabrics that reflect the lifestyle of the nobility in the 15th century Piedmont.

Big Bath

I think this huge 'bath tub' belongs to the church Santa Chiara, it was under abuse of vandalism for many years and was just cleaned up recently.

Unfortunately, some people just never know how to appreciate beautiful, antique thing, as can be seen, already some idiots have vandalised it again.

Location : Via Santa Chiara

Konrad Mägi At Palazzo Chiablese

Palazzo Chiablese often holds exhibition of paintings, and often the paintings are accompanied with detail of the life events that changed the painter mentally and emotionally, thus often reflected in their art works. This make the exhibition even more interesting.

Konrad Vilhelm Mägi (1 November 1878 – 15 August 1925) was an Estonian painter, primarily known for his landscape work. He was one of the most colour-sensitive Estonian painters of the first decades of the 20th century, and Mägi's works on motifs of the island of Saaremaa are the first modern Estonian nature paintings.

Mägi received his elementary art education from the drawing courses of the German Artisans' Society of Tartu (1899–1902.) At the same time, he was keenly engaged in theater, violin, and various sports.
Mägi continued his art education as an unattached student in Saint Petersburg (1903–1905), studying under Amandus Adamson. In the autumn of 1907, he went to Paris. There Mägi studied at a free academy. From 1908 to 1910, he lived in Norway. In 1912, Mägi returned to Tartu, where he worked as an art teacher.

In Åland, he created delicate plant vignettes in the style of Art Nouveau: Kahekesi (Two together; 1908; China ink drawing). In Paris, Mägi was influenced by Impressionism and Fauvism, which had a significant impact on his colours: Lilleline väli majakesega (A flower field with a little house; 1908–1909), Norra maastik männiga (A Norwegian landscape with a pine; 1910).
From 1918, the influence of Expressionism is manifest, fostered by Mägi's extreme sensitivity and emotional response to the anxious times: Pühajärv (Lake Püha); (1918–1920), Otepää maastik (Landscape of Otepää; (1918–1920). Also influenced by Expressionism are his big figure compositions Pietà (1919), Kolgata (Golgatha) (1921).

 Mägi's new artistic period, begun on a trip to Italy, brought calmer tempers: Varemed Capril (Ruins in Capri; 1922–1923). Along with nature pictures, he painted flowers and portraits. Mägi's mostly beautiful female models express the Art Nouveau ideal of beauty: Holsti (1916). In his later portraits from the 1920s, a more serious temper is expressed: Madonna (1923–1924).