Located just south of Parco Valentino sat the old Lingotto building (built in the early 1900’s). Now a shopping mall and movie theater, the building once functioned as a Fiat automobile factory. This particular factory was unique in that the roof of the building also functioned as a test track. Raw materials would enter on the ground floor and wind their ways up the five floors until a finished vehicle emerged on the roof. Vehicles would finish their production with a final lap around the rooftop track. The track was also featured and made famous by the 1969 film, The Italian Job. Today, you can reach the roof via a small art gallery also located on top of the building. From here, you are free to walk around the track. The day I was there, it seemed as though employees were setting up an event that was to happen later that evening. As a result, there were both new and vintage Fiat vehicles conveniently located on the track.
A few days later, I was able to take a regional train back over to Milan, Italy to visit an American friend of mine who happened to be working a camp there. Tamara, a recent Vanderbilt graduate, had been working as an English tutor for a camp in several different Italian cities and this particular week was Milan. Even better, her host-mother was gracious enough to show both of us around the city. While I had been to Milan before, it was nice to learn the history and culture from a local.
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