Lingotto Pista 500 and Pinacoteca Agnelli

The Lingotto is the former Fiat factory at Via Nizza 230 in the Lingotto district of southern Turin, Piedmont, Italy. Designed by the engineer Giacomo Matte-Trucco and built between 1916 and 1923, it was among the most celebrated industrial buildings of its era, with a five-storey structure more than a kilometre long. Raw materials entered at the bottom and cars progressed upward through the floors, with finished vehicles tested on a test track on the roof. The building was converted in the 1980s by Renzo Piano into a multi-use complex with offices, a conference centre, a hotel, a shopping mall and an Eataly store. The rooftop track, known as the Pista 500, is now a landscaped space that can be visited with the Pinacoteca Agnelli, a small art gallery that displays works from the Agnelli collection, including pieces by artists such as Canaletto, Matisse, Picasso and Renoir. Visitors take a lift up to the roof, where they can walk along the banked curves of the former track, and see views toward the city and the Alps. The glass-and-steel bubble structure called the Bolla, also designed by Piano, houses a meeting space. Visitors typically spend one and a half to two hours, including the gallery and a walk on the track. The photographers' best angles are along the banked curves of the track and from the roof looking over Turin. The site is calmest on weekday mornings and busiest on weekends and during events at the congress centre. Opening hours and admission change, so check pinacoteca-agnelli.it before visiting. The Lingotto metro station is a five-minute walk away, and the complex makes a convenient stop to combine with food shopping at Eataly or a visit to the nearby Museo Nazionale dell'Automobile.