YDYtravelers: Three little museums involving human anatomy, criminology and, of course, fruit make our day weird

We all slept in today, which was much needed. After over 30 days of non-stop touring, a body tends to get worn down, and that’s where we all seemed to be today. So, our late start was well earned. We began as we have every day in Torino, at a cafe eating goodies and drinking coffee and bicerin. We tried a new place today and it just wasn’t the same. But, really, we’re in Torino, eating at some of the best cafes in the world, so who are we to judge?

Our day was built around three museums, all part of the University of Torino. They were all quite old, housing collections mainly from the 19th century. Our first was the Musuem of Human Anatomy. No photos were allowed at this location, so the pictures I have below were taken from the internet. This musuem was quite like the Vrolik, which we saw in Amsterdam, one month ago. The musuem had examples of human anatomy, mostly skeletal. Some, however, were preserved or mummified objects. And, there were several interesting wax models of everything from the anatomy of the eye to the stages of fetal development. The back portion of the one-room musuem was dedicated to brain specimens. There were hundreds and hundreds of them, in several glass display cases. And on the opposite side, were examples of skulls and even death masks. George is doing a project on the history of medicine for school and these museums we’ve visited on this trip are fantastic exposure for him.

The next musuem we visited was dedicated to one man’s vision and corresponding collection of the anthropology of criminality. The Cesare Lombroso Musuem of Criminal Anthropology was a fascinating and disturbing. Lombroso lived at the end of the 19th and early 20th century and in his studies of criminals led to some strange conclusions. He equated the number and types of tattoos with a predisposition for deviant behavior. Also, in the dissection of the skulls of deceased criminals, he concluded that the shape of the skull can also determine criminality. So that’s a bunch of nonsense. But, the collection he amassed included hundreds of skulls that he studied (one of which - very creepily - had the word prostitute written on it) as well as equipment he used to analyze criminality. Also, he amassed a large collection of death masks of deceased prisoners, marked with their names and prison number on them. There was also some incredible artwork made by both prisoners and people committed to insane asylums. George commented that he’d have been deemed either a criminal or insane by Lombroso. No photos were permitted in this museum either, so pictures below are again from our friend Google.

The last musuem of our day, the beautifully titled Museo Della Frutta, housed the collection of models of fruit created by Francesco Garnier Valletti. He was a fruit fanatic for sure and being in a room full of every possible type of apple, recreated in wax, was pretty incredible. Also, the red labels made me very happy. Numbered fruit models with little name tags, all arranged next to each other on display shelves equals musuem heaven. Thank you Museo Della Frutta!

Taxied home. Watched Cars with George. Slept. Woke up. Fed the masses. Watched Anchorman. Wrote blog. That about sums up the rest of the day (and this abbreviated ending is an indicator of my level of sleepiness). Our last day in this amazing city is tomorrow. And we are home on Thursday!