Tourism has been my passion and my profession since 1990. I began in La Plata, Argentina, at Euromar Turismo, the agency owned by my beloved father, Orazio Filippo Greco, before continuing in Italy with Andina Viaggi. Merlintravel grows from that experience and the desire to keep exploring and sharing the world. The journey continues…
Let’s see where it takes us.
Tourism has been my passion and my profession since 1990. I began in La Plata, Argentina, at Euromar Turismo, the agency owned by my beloved father, Orazio Filippo Greco, before continuing in Italy with Andina Viaggi. Merlintravel grows from that experience and the desire to keep exploring and sharing the world. The journey continues…
Let’s see where it takes us.
Turin Guide 08 · Assembly, test track, automobile collections, exhibitions, workers’ districts, Mirafiori and migration
A complete industrial-history route centred on the Lingotto factory and its rooftop track, extending to automobile collections, railway and market infrastructure, Mirafiori production, workers’ housing and the migrant city created around manufacturing.
Plan the routeWhy this route must be read in layers
Lingotto’s vertical production route became famous because materials rose through the building and finished cars reached the roof. Its current uses alter circulation while retaining major structural evidence.
MAUTO can explain engineering and mobility only when vehicles are connected to manufacture, road systems, fuel, advertising and labour rather than displayed as isolated sculpture.
Mirafiori and surrounding quarters remain working and residential environments. Access to plants is controlled, and the social history of migration cannot be reconstructed through unauthorized industrial tourism.
Begin with publicly accessible Lingotto fabric and the museum, then use normal transit to reach southern districts; never enter production, rail or service areas without explicit institutional access.
The route
Read Lingotto’s building and roof as one production system, continue through automobile and exhibition institutions, then follow rail and tram corridors toward Mirafiori and the neighbourhoods built around industry.
Move in the documented order: Lingotto factory: vertical production in reinforced concrete; then The rooftop track: testing above the factory; then Pinacoteca Agnelli and the Scrigno: a private collection above industry. Recheck live access and transport before entering a controlled site.
Move in the documented order: Lingotto’s adaptive reuse: preservation through selective change; then MAUTO: automobile history beyond styling; then Former wholesale markets: food logistics beside the factory city. Recheck live access and transport before entering a controlled site.
Move in the documented order: Lingotto railway and freight corridors: infrastructure behind the icon; then Mirafiori: horizontal mass production at metropolitan scale; then Workers’ districts: housing the industrial workforce. Recheck live access and transport before entering a controlled site.
Move in the documented order: Migration and labour: the people omitted by the factory silhouette. Recheck live access and transport before entering a controlled site.
Ten chapters
The order follows terrain, institutions and present-day movement. Use the index to return to a chapter without reducing the route to isolated monuments.
Long structural bays, ramps and courtyards reveal a factory designed to move components upward and completed cars toward the roof.
Long structural bays, ramps and courtyards reveal a factory designed to move components upward and completed cars toward the roof. The site becomes clearer when its surviving fabric, later alterations and present use are read together.
The area is inhabited and worked, not staged for visitors. Keep doorways, pavements, cycle lanes and deliveries clear, ask before photographing people and use current municipal mobility information.
FIAT built Lingotto in phases from the 1910s to the 1920s; the plant became an international image of modern manufacture before production ended and reuse began.
Begin with repetitive concrete frame. Then compare spiral ramps and internal logistics with new cultural and commercial insertions; the differences are evidence, not visual noise.
Banked curves and long straights made final testing part of the building’s celebrated silhouette.
Banked curves and long straights made final testing part of the building’s celebrated silhouette. The site becomes clearer when its surviving fabric, later alterations and present use are read together.
Opening, ticketing, room access and temporary displays can change. Check the institution’s official notice shortly before visiting, use the designated entrance and allow for security or conservation controls.
Completed cars were brought to the roof as the last stage of the production sequence; later restoration and selective access converted the track into heritage and event space.
Begin with banking and safety edges. Then compare relationship to ramps below with current landscape and access additions; the differences are evidence, not visual noise.
A compact gallery suspended over the roof sets paintings against a building associated with mass production.
A compact gallery suspended over the roof sets paintings against a building associated with mass production. The site becomes clearer when its surviving fabric, later alterations and present use are read together.
Opening, ticketing, room access and temporary displays can change. Check the institution’s official notice shortly before visiting, use the designated entrance and allow for security or conservation controls.
Renzo Piano designed the rooftop gallery for the Agnelli collection in the early twenty-first century, adding a private collecting narrative to the converted factory.
Begin with the gallery volume above the track. Then compare collection scale versus factory scale with temporary projects across the roof; the differences are evidence, not visual noise.
Hotels, university spaces, shops, conference halls and health services occupy a complex once organised around manufacture.
Hotels, university spaces, shops, conference halls and health services occupy a complex once organised around manufacture. The site becomes clearer when its surviving fabric, later alterations and present use are read together.
The area is inhabited and worked, not staged for visitors. Keep doorways, pavements, cycle lanes and deliveries clear, ask before photographing people and use current municipal mobility information.
An international redevelopment process from the 1980s onward retained major concrete structures while removing equipment and redistributing access among several owners and programmes.
Begin with retained frame and ramps. Then compare areas where machinery has disappeared with public and private circulation separated today; the differences are evidence, not visual noise.
Vehicles, prototypes, engines and media can connect mobility to engineering, labour, energy and social aspiration.
Vehicles, prototypes, engines and media can connect mobility to engineering, labour, energy and social aspiration. The site becomes clearer when its surviving fabric, later alterations and present use are read together.
Opening, ticketing, room access and temporary displays can change. Check the institution’s official notice shortly before visiting, use the designated entrance and allow for security or conservation controls.
Turin’s automobile museum originated in the 1930s and developed in a purpose-built riverfront home later extensively redesigned for contemporary display.
Begin with technical systems beneath bodywork. Then compare mass-market vehicles beside racing icons with labels addressing production and environmental cost; the differences are evidence, not visual noise.
Large halls and rail-road access record the distribution systems that fed a rapidly growing industrial population.
Large halls and rail-road access record the distribution systems that fed a rapidly growing industrial population. The site becomes clearer when its surviving fabric, later alterations and present use are read together.
The area is inhabited and worked, not staged for visitors. Keep doorways, pavements, cycle lanes and deliveries clear, ask before photographing people and use current municipal mobility information.
The Mercati Generali complex developed in the twentieth century near Lingotto and later entered cycles of partial reuse associated with events and urban redevelopment.
Begin with shed spans and loading edges. Then compare connections to rail and major roads with temporary uses distinguished from permanent conversion; the differences are evidence, not visual noise.
Tracks, stations and service land explain how workers, materials and goods reached southern Turin.
Tracks, stations and service land explain how workers, materials and goods reached southern Turin. The site becomes clearer when its surviving fabric, later alterations and present use are read together.
Timetables, engineering works, capacity and accessibility arrangements can change. Check the operator on the day, leave a realistic connection margin and never enter tracks, depots or restricted infrastructure.
National and industrial rail systems expanded with factories and neighbourhoods, then changed as freight patterns, high-speed routes and metropolitan services evolved.
Begin with public platforms versus restricted track land. Then compare bridges and underpasses joining neighbourhoods with former sidings visible in new development; the differences are evidence, not visual noise.
A vast controlled industrial area replaced Lingotto’s vertical model and reorganised southern Turin around shifts, gates and roads.
A vast controlled industrial area replaced Lingotto’s vertical model and reorganised southern Turin around shifts, gates and roads. The site becomes clearer when its surviving fabric, later alterations and present use are read together.
The area is inhabited and worked, not staged for visitors. Keep doorways, pavements, cycle lanes and deliveries clear, ask before photographing people and use current municipal mobility information.
FIAT opened Mirafiori in 1939 and expanded it after the war, making the plant central to Italy’s industrial growth, labour conflict and later restructuring.
Begin with perimeter and gate scale from public space. Then compare transport routes built for shift changes with active production kept separate from historical observation; the differences are evidence, not visual noise.
Apartment blocks, services, parish complexes and public transport reveal how production extended far beyond factory walls.
Apartment blocks, services, parish complexes and public transport reveal how production extended far beyond factory walls. The site becomes clearer when its surviving fabric, later alterations and present use are read together.
The area is inhabited and worked, not staged for visitors. Keep doorways, pavements, cycle lanes and deliveries clear, ask before photographing people and use current municipal mobility information.
Successive housing programmes responded unevenly to population growth, especially during post-war migration from southern Italy and the Veneto.
Begin with different housing phases. Then compare schools, markets and public space with distance and connection to industrial gates; the differences are evidence, not visual noise.
Oral histories, union records and neighbourhood institutions recover experiences of recruitment, assembly work, conflict and adaptation.
Oral histories, union records and neighbourhood institutions recover experiences of recruitment, assembly work, conflict and adaptation. The site becomes clearer when its surviving fabric, later alterations and present use are read together.
The area is inhabited and worked, not staged for visitors. Keep doorways, pavements, cycle lanes and deliveries clear, ask before photographing people and use current municipal mobility information.
Industrial expansion drew workers from Piedmontese countryside and across Italy before later international migration and deindustrialisation changed the city’s social geography.
Begin with documented testimony rather than stereotype. Then compare meeting halls and community services with new businesses occupying older industrial streets; the differences are evidence, not visual noise.
Turin through time
From Augusta Taurinorum and the Savoy court to national capital, industrial metropolis and contemporary reuse.
Augusta Taurinorum is founded on a regular Roman grid close to the Po and Dora corridors.
Gates, theatre, walls and urban infrastructure develop within the Roman colony.
Bishops, communes, churches and fortified routes reshape the medieval city and its territory.
The House of Savoy establishes firmer control over Turin, beginning a long dynastic transformation.
The University of Turin is founded and becomes a durable part of the city’s institutional landscape.
Emanuele Filiberto transfers the Savoy capital to Turin, accelerating court planning and fortification.
New squares, straight streets, palaces and churches expand the capital beyond the Roman core.
Guarino Guarini works in Turin, transforming sacred and court architecture through geometry and light.
The siege of Turin ends; the victory is later commemorated through Juvarra’s Basilica of Superga.
Royal status and Juvarra’s projects reinforce Turin’s ceremonial axes and metropolitan residence system.
The Statuto Albertino and the Subalpine Parliament make Turin central to constitutional politics.
Turin serves as the first capital of the Kingdom of Italy before the government moves to Florence.
FIAT, Lingotto and Mirafiori help turn Turin into a major industrial and migrant metropolis.
Bombing, occupation, resistance and liberation damage the city and leave a complex memorial geography.
Deindustrialisation, museum growth, adaptive reuse and metropolitan regeneration repeatedly change Turin.
Before your visit
Opening hours, reservation systems, restoration, exhibitions and transport can change. Recheck the linked official institution shortly before departure.
Churches and sanctuaries remain religious spaces. Services, funerals and community use take priority over visitor itineraries.
Turin · Piedmont combines dense urban routes with lakes, valleys and dispersed towns. Do not compress distant chapters into an unsafe or superficial day.
Arcades, station halls, markets, courtyards, workshops and residential streets must continue to function while you observe or photograph them.
Check the responsible rail, navigation, bus, road or park operator on the day; replacement services and weather can change an otherwise sound route.
Restoration, reconstruction, adaptive reuse and new development have all shaped the landscape visible today.
Method and sources
This guide uses official museum, ministry, municipal, transport, park and UNESCO documentation checked on 29 August 2026. It separates durable historical interpretation from access details that can change, distinguishes surviving fabric from restoration or reconstruction, and treats worship, work, residence and public movement as part of the evidence. Every chapter links its principal institutional source; tickets, closures, weather and transport must always be verified again on the day of the visit.
All ten images are original Merlintravel editorial watercolours based on documented present-day conditions. They are illustrations, not substitutes for archaeological plans. Opening hours, tickets, accessible routes, temporary exhibitions and conservation work can change; consult the linked official pages shortly before visiting.
