Hyear the British began in the 1950s and soon industrial tourism will also explode in Italy. “In Great Britain and in Northern Europe the phenomenon mainly concerns the old museum factories, while in the Belpaese he likes the active industry” says Jacopo Ibello, author of Guide to industrial tourism (Morellini Editore). The reason? The factories tell stories, open the doors of business museums and productive poles in the country where beauty moves to the objects and places where they build themselves. A “behind the scenes” look to get to know the territory better by exploring Places away from the most beaten destinations, between fascinating sites of industrial archeology and factories in activities that welcome visitors.
Following the thread of history
The industrial heritage of Prato has become an attractive resourceand Green Fashion also turns on the spotlight on a district facing the future. At the avant -garde La Gori Alberto Materie Prime Tessili. By appointment (Gorialberto.it), you enter the shed to attend all the steps: the arrival of the bales of used cashmere shirts, the selection, the cutting of seams, zips, buttons and labels, the division by color, and finally the machine shaking. Visits to recovered factories, photographic exhibitions, fashion workshops scheduled in Prato for the third edition of Type Festival 2025, industrial tourism festival (until April 8). Also the Tai (Tuscan Art Industry, tuscanartindustry.com/visiteguidate-cheology-urism- industrial-prato-tai) organizes guided tours between industrial ruins, abandoned but also regenerated and active factories.
Under the highest chimney in the city
Among the numerous itineraries proposed (PratoTourismo.it/it/cosa/tipo-turismo- industrial) from Do not miss the Campolmi pole (via Puccetti 3, Prato) precious testimony of industrial archeology with a scenic longitudinal tub full of water and the highest chimnem in the city In the internal courtyard, the Lazzerini Library which until May 30th hosts the photographic exhibition Industrial trips, and the Fabric museum (MuseoDelTessuto.it) where the collections of ancient artifacts stand out (fabrics, clothes, accessories, samples) and the exhibition Velvet I love me (until June 8)-
The Ciminiera del Polo Campolmi, in Prato, in Tuscany.
At the Biella business lap
Biella, Piedmont, also boasts a long textile tradition and promotes industrial tourism by opening numerous factories to the public with the initiative Giro (30 and 31 May, ui.biella.it). In the wake of what is made by Ermenegildo Zegna, You can admire the historical heritage of Casa Zegna (Foundationzegna.org) with the collection of samples of the 19th century, the photographic exhibition Mimmo Jodice. Oasis (until April 21) and the permanent exhibition One hundred years of excellence.
Visitors to the permanent exhibition of Casa Zegna, in Biella, in Piedmont.
In the Writing workshop
In the era of computers, the charm of fountain pens resists, which between vintage models and contemporary design are real jewels. The visit to the production departments of the Aurora company (auropapena.it15 minutes from the center of Turin, the Bertolla municipal road to the abedia di Stura, 200) allows you to follow the processing of metals, the polishing of the components, the hand assembly of the penne, the construction of the gold or steel nibs and the engraving for customization. Then on the upper floor of the company, You visit the writing workshop (OfficinadellaScchoa.it), Museum on the history of writing and fountains where calligraphy courses are organized.
The courtyard of the Aurora company where the writing workshop is also based.
Vintage charm, between writing and architecture
In the UNESCO heritage list stands out Ivrea, “industrial city of the twentieth century” (Ivreacittaindustriale.it), site consisting of the complex of buildings designed by the most famous Italian architects and urban planners of the twentieth century who gave body to the industrial and socio-cultural project of Adriano Olivetti (mamivrea.it). Do not miss the West Residential Unit, (1968-1971) known as Talponia, semicircular in shape, and the magnificent helical staircase of Palazzo Offices Olivetti (via Guglielmo Jervis 77, Ivrea) surmounted by a Murano glass skylight.
The helical staircase of Palazzo Offices Olivetti, in Ivrea, in Piedmont.
In the former Unesco Heritage Worker Village
The success of industrial tourism is also testified by the growing number of visitors of the Crespi d’Adda worker village, UNESCO heritage in Capriate San Gervasio in the province of Bergamofounded in 1877 by Cristoforo Crespi next to its textile industry as a small ideal city, a center still inhabited and can also be visited with guided tours (villageocrespi.it).
The hydroelectric plant of the Crespi d’Adda worker village, in Capriate San Gervasio (Bergamo), in Lombardy.
Between Caruggi and old Moli
Liguria with the project manager Alessandra Brignola dynamic. After the Master in Archeology and Industrial Tourism in the United States, he returns to Genoa and Lancia tourist itineraries to the rediscovery of the history of work and industrial heritage. One of the many to try is the path on foot Pier in pier among the drops of the ancient port (itinerary studied together with the architect Guido Rosato) to understand how the Genoese landing placed between the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, explaining the vehicles, equipment and buildings still existing (every first Sunday of the month or by reservation on the site: Inge-cultura.org).
Explorations in the mine
Sardinia, the Italian region with the most widespread extractive activity, which began at the time of the Phoenicians with oxidian, preserves various places of mining archeology that can be visited. Among the most representative there is the Mine of Montevecchio (Minedimontevecchio.it), south of Oristano, who began the extractive activity in Roman and mid -nineteenth -century times, started growing industrialization and continuous for a century and a half until the closure in 1991. “Among the five visit routes, one in the town, and the others in the Levante construction sites, it is worth traveling the Anglosarda Gallery, the only extraction open to the public on the island»Recommend Manuele Levanti, director of the museum system. For fans of mining archeology and places with wild nature, there is also the 4 × 4 tours west path, Discovering the non -musealized areas following the trend and history of the mineral, which crosses the Mine of Ingurtosu and its Lavia Brassy, dismantled in the seventies, imposes up to the sea deposits on the beach and the Piscinas dunesfrom where the loads were embarked towards the island of San Pietro and subsequently in Porto Flavia, in the Sulcis.
Mineral trolleys of the former Mine of Montevecchio, near the Piscinas beach, in Sardinia.
The sweet side of Abruzzo
Sweet surprises in Abruzzo, Sulmona, home of the sugared almond from the late ‘400 and perhaps even earlier. In 1783 the confetti Pelino was born which creates them following the recipe and processing of the past, without starches or flour. “The production, always and only entrusted to women, can be admired from the window of the first floor of the Museum Pelino dell’Arte and of the Confect Technology (via Stazione Introdacqua, 55) with original tools and machinery »says Lucilla Pelino, who manages the company together with cousin Mario. “It is a slow process that lasts five days and goes from the peeling of the almonds to confetting.” © RESERVED REPRODUCTION
I woman © RESERVED REPRODUCTION