Wednesday, 25 October, 2018
I’m continually surprised by the amount of history in this underrated and ‘invisible’ spot in Italy. Sure, there’s the Roman origins, but it goes on through its royal presence, its significance in the unification of the country, its entry into industry with chocolate, coffee, and automobiles, and its love affair with innovation.
Innovation is a strange word in Italy, where things seem set in stone. ‘We always do this.’ Tradition is everywhere. I see the people dancing, listen to the Klezmer-like songs at Balon, watch the pageantry of the markets, eat the food that’s been the same for centuries and tastes the same wherever I go. Sometimes it feels quite stiff. And yet there’s also a passion to come up with something new. Maybe this is why Turin has been so immersed in industry – to produce and develop things that led the way.
I’ve watched them building the new Lavazza headquarters over a few years. The company has always been in this area of town, so it made sense that they’d stay more or less put and create the ‘Cloud’ complex. The way it’s all put together, you can really feel the pride. Finally on Wednesday I made the time to go to the museum inside the complex.
So far, Turin museums have been formal and old fashioned. I’ve not felt the need to linger. Even in the Egyptian museum last year it was the size and not the contents that kept me there so long. The Lavazza museum is quite the opposite. Apart from the Ontario Science Centre, which broke away from the traditional when it opened, I haven’t been as immersed or impressed. It’s innovative and so it seems was Luigi Lavazza, the founder.I’ve spent some time checking through the history of things and it’s a lot of typing so, if you want, you can read it all by going to the Company section of Lavazza’s website. However, it began when Luigi’s family farm in Murisengo, just 40-something kilometres east of Turin, had a crop failure. Luigi took a loan for a business suit and set off to Turin. After working for a while, he bought a grocery store for about $20 in 1895. And so it began.
Luigi involved his whole family in his business, including his wife and daughters – a pretty big step for the times. It’s the fifth generation that heads it today.
The stories I’ve read differ – did they invent or were just early adopters – but it seems that Luigi and his family are responsible for coffee blending, the vacuum coffee can (they patented it), the coffee truck, perhaps the commercial coffee machine and the introduction of pods (restaurant and home), and sending their coffee to space. Today, their story is about sustainability and extending their early work of supporting community into the coffee producing countries.
When you arrive to buy your ticket, they give you a little coffee cup and tell you to place it on every spot that has a saucer shape to unlock the presentation. It seems strange but made sense later. The museum is housed in three downstairs rooms and three upstairs rooms. Each has exhibits and many photographs. Scattered throughout there are tablets so that you can scroll through the pages and find out much more.
In the first room there are artifacts that show the history from 1895 to the present day. The second room is about the manufacturing process. You can even interact with an exhibit to grow your own coffee. The third room shows the different ways their coffee has gone into the world – the machines, the coffee truck, its role in space… upstairs is the design and communication aspect. This is something Lavazza is very proud of: its logos, its advertising campaigns, its stickers, its calendars and other art works. It’s all very elegant, striking and…Italian.
From the upstairs room, where we had to take selfies 😰, you go behind a velvet curtain to use a giant tablet that will trigger projections onto a maybe 250° screen, complete with surround sound. Finally, you enter the testing room. You sit at a circular bar and the hostess chats to you. First she gave us some caramel coffee popcorn. Very nice. And then you can choose an espresso. I’m not having coffee right now but Krish had his very first ever coffee and that was the biggest smile I’ve seen on his face for a very long time. Fun!
At the end, back in the shop, they take your coffee cup and scan it to trace the history of your museum journey. They sent me an email with the transcript. I haven’t checked it yet (selfies! agh!)
Disappointing to learn that the archaeological remains are not part of the tour. E la vita!
My next step will be to visit the next-to-original store, which is now a coffee shop – via San Tommaso, 10.