On the way back to Switzerland from Nice, we darted across Italy for the Alps. With Torin in our path (around lunchtime!), we stopped in to gawk at the famous Lingotta, the early Modernist auto factory with a race track on its roof!
Designed by Giacomo Matté-Trucco and built between 1916 and 1923 for Fiat, raw materials entered at the bottom of the factory and then spiraled up each floor of the five stories before emerging on the roof for a test drive on a banked 1.5-km race track before rolling down to the street for delivery. Le Corbusier called it "one of the most impressive sights in industry." The rooftop test track features briefly in the getaway sequence in the film The Italian Job (1969).
The factory closed in 1982, and Renzo Piano was selected to repurpose the space into a mall and office space. Today, you can (as we did) stroll up the spiral ramp to the roof and walk the track and enjoy the park.
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