Lingotto Travel Guide

The Giovanni and Marella Agnelli Foundation provided the money for the Pinacoteca del Lingotto.

The former president of FIAT put together this collection - which has been presented in this furturistic gallery.

With only 25-odd paintings, you can really take your time and appreciate the quality of the pieces on display.

I especially like the Matisses' and the two Picassos, from different periods which were cleverly displayed next to each other.

The gallery is on several floors and the lower floors are used for touring exhibitions.
At only 4 Euros for entrance, the exhibition is reasonable value as well.

This restaurant in the Lingotto complex features cutting edge design, and is being used as a testbed to roll-out a number of these places across Italy.

As you may have guessed you can have any meat you like...as long as it's chicken. I did however spot a small amount of ham lurking in one of the salads.

The main dishes are reasonably priced between 8 and 12 euros, and the menu features a 'special' for each day of the week.

Being a thursday I choose the Chicken curry. It was disappointingly bland, but I suspect the more Italian based dishes are a better bet.

Favorite Dish: The Salads looked good.

When they said it had valet parking....I didn't realise they meant up to the table.

The bar at the Le Meridien is pretty much what one would expect in a four-star hotel, with its deep sofas, and elegant (if pricey) cocktails.

What I especially liked however, was the vintage FIAT car that is parked in the middle of the bar.

It's been lovingly restored and resplendent with its deep maroon paintjob and nicely aged leather seats.

Dress Code: Smart Casual, or better

I suppose that driving a Fiat car back to its spiritual birthplace (the former FIAT car factory at Lingotto) would be the right thing to do. It would be unlikely to be its physical home, as any FIAT built before 1982 would have rusted away by now.

If you arrive by train at the Main Turin Station, then there are several buses and a tram that run from the right hand side of the station as you exit the station directly to the LIngotto Complex.

Alternatively, if you can alight at Lingotto Station itself you can make a shorter taxi ride, or use tram 18 which stops a block to the left of the station as you exit it.

You can also walk it in about 20 minutes from this station, but head over the bridge first, as the more direct route follows a somewhat dangerous dual carriageway tunnel.

The Art gallery itself is described in another tip, but the bookshop on the groundfloor is unusually large and well stocked.

It covers not only the artists featured in the art gallery, but many other besides.

It also features a range of books about the Lingotto complex itself - the amount of work that went into the re-build is truly astounding when you look at the various 'work-in-progress' pictures.

On the roof of the building when it was a factory was a test track : a superb piece of design, it occupied the whole roof of the workshops . Two straights of 443 metres each, joined by parabolic bends, formed a continuous track for testing cars as soon as they left the assembly lines

The photograph clearly shows this happening.

Nowadays it is used as a jogging track, and as such provides a great 1.1 Km track to pound the feet on. It is accessed via the lift that leads up to the art gallery (see seperate tip) and is open to all.

Despite it being February, and covered in snow, and not having proper running shoes I was determined to give in a go. I managed a lap in about five minutes : next time I will be much quicker.

Favorite thing: Some of the famous chase sequences from the "Italian Job" film were filmed at the Lingotto. I am of course refering to the original 1960's film that gets repeated ad nauseum every Christmas on TV.

For those who have never seen it here is a summary : (from a website)

The original The Italian Job is a jaunty crime-caper crammed full of the very ingredients that made Britain the groovy centre of the Universe (ask Austin Powers). It had Michael Caine spouting the classic line "You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors!", Mini Coopers driven like demented ants, and a sing-a-long classic We're The Self-Preservation Society. The story is about a cheeky bullion robbery in Italy (the style capital of the Universe) using Minis as getaway vehicles. The audacity of the crime has echoes of The Great Train Robbery, and the fact that the robbers hide amongst football supporters reminds us of Britain's recent victory in the World Cup (1966).

You can of course (see sports tip) still see the test track. It's also said that the entire FIAT factory turned out to see the 'Flying leap' in the chase sequence - confident that the stuntmen would fall to their deaths - such pessimism.