Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli (Lingotto)

The Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli sits atop the former Fiat Lingotto factory in southern Turin, one of the most iconic industrial buildings in Italy. The vast 1920s plant, with its assembly lines spiralling upward and a famous test track on the roof, was converted by the architect Renzo Piano into a cultural and commercial complex, and crowning it is the gallery he designed as a suspended glass and steel scrigno, or treasure chest, hovering above the rooftop. Inside this jewel box the Agnelli family, longtime heads of Fiat, displayed a small but exquisite permanent collection of masterpieces: luminous Venetian views by Canaletto and Bellotto, works by Matisse, Picasso, Renoir, Manet, Modigliani, Balla and Severini, and a striking series of Tiepolo canvases, shown in a uniquely light-filled space. Beyond the permanent works, the Pinacoteca stages ambitious contemporary exhibitions and gives access to the celebrated rooftop test track, where Fiats were once driven at speed, now a walkable promenade, and to the Pista 500, a hanging garden, and a pinnacle viewpoint with panoramas over the city and the Alps. A visit usually takes an hour and a half to two hours including the rooftop. The gallery is quieter on weekday afternoons and busier at weekends and during major shows. Photography without flash is generally allowed in the permanent collection. Reached easily by metro or train to Lingotto station south of the centre, the Pinacoteca combines world-class art, modern architecture and Turin's industrial heritage, and the rooftop track in particular is an experience found nowhere else in Piedmont.