Mole Antonelliana

How to visit without buying the wrong ticket

The Mole catches people out because it sells three different tickets and they cover different things. The National Cinema Museum fills the inside, climbing a spiral ramp past projectors, props and reclining sofas where you lie back and watch clips — that’s the €18 ticket. The glass panoramic lift is separate: it rides up through the open centre of the building to a viewing deck at 85 metres in under a minute, and that’s €9 on its own. The combined ticket is €23, which is the one to buy if you want both and the sky is clear. Decide before you queue, because the lift cabin is small and the line for it on a Saturday is the slow part of the day.

Book the combined ticket online if you’re doing both — the official site lets you skip the lift queue, which is the main reason to bother. The museum itself rarely sells out, so a same-day museum-only ticket is usually fine. Note the timings: it’s open Wednesday to Monday, 09:00–19:00, and closed every Tuesday; the ticket office shuts an hour before closing and the last lift leaves ten minutes before. People arrive on a Tuesday and find the doors shut more often than you’d think.

Is it worth it, and what to skip

The lift is worth it on a clear day and a waste on a grey one — the whole point is the Alps lined up behind the rooftops, and Turin’s winter haze can wipe that out completely. If the weather’s flat, do the museum and skip the lift; you’re not missing a view, just a queue. The cinema museum, on the other hand, is the surprise here — far more engaging than “a museum stuck inside a landmark” implies, and easily 1.5 to 2 hours if you stop to watch the clips.

If you only have time for one thing inside, the museum beats the lift on a dull day and the lift beats the museum on a brilliant one. Pair it with the Egyptian Museum ten minutes’ walk away rather than stacking two viewpoints in a day — Turin rewards spacing its big indoor sights out, especially when the weather turns.