CUORICINO is an array of 62 TeO2 bolometers with a total mass of 40.7 Kg (10.4 Kg of 130Te), the largest operating one for a cryogenic experiment. Organized as a 14 storey tower, it is meant as a slightly modified version of one of the 25 towers of the CUORE project, a proposed tightly packed array of 1000 TeO2 bolometers (750 kg of total mass of TeO2) for ultralow-background searches on neutrinoless double beta decay, cold dark matter, solar axions, and rare nuclear decays. CUORICINO data taking started on April 2003 at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) and was stopped in November 2003 to repair the readout wiring system of the 62 bolometers. Detector performance and early background analysis results are reviewed. Preliminary results on ββ(0ν) of 130Te are presented. The expected performance and sensitivity of CUORE is also discussed.