The Italian Job in Turin: Your Questions Answered

Planning the tour

Can you still do an Italian Job tour of Turin?

Yes — you can do it yourself, free, using this guide. Every location is listed with its exact coordinates, so you can walk the city route in a day and drive the Alpine locations on another.

I ran guided tours in a classic Mini for several years, but I no longer do. Rather than let the research go to waste, the whole guide is published here.

How long does the Turin city tour take?

Allow a full day at a comfortable pace, with time for coffee in the arcades and lunch near Piazza San Carlo. If you are pushed for time, locations A to F are the heart of it and can be covered in a long morning.

The three outlying city locations and the Alps each need extra time, and realistically a car.

Do I need a car for the Italian Job tour?

Not for the main city route. Everything from Piazza Castello to Lingotto can be done on foot and by metro.

You do need a car — or a taxi — for Mirafiori, Corso Giulio Cesare, the Parco del Valentino locations and the sewer exit. The Alps definitely need a car, and satellite navigation.

When is the best time of year to go?

For the city, spring and autumn are ideal. Turin gets genuinely hot in July and August, though the arcades mean you can walk a surprising distance in the shade.

Winter has one advantage: the gap between the Mirafiori factory roofs is much easier to see once the trees have lost their leaves.

For the Alps, the high passes are generally open from around June to October, so that part of the tour is summer work.

Where should I stay?

If you want to sleep inside the film, stay in the hotel in the Lingotto building — part of the old FIAT factory, with the rooftop test track above you. It trades as the NH Torino Lingotto Congress. It puts the Palavela, Via Ventimiglia and the test track within walking distance.

If you would rather be in the historic centre, anywhere near Piazza Castello puts you on the starting line.

Visiting the locations

Can you go on the Lingotto rooftop test track?

Yes. The track is now the Pista 500, a rooftop garden laid out along the old banked circuit with contemporary art installations among the planting. It is run by the Pinacoteca Agnelli and reached through the Lingotto shopping centre.

A combined gallery and track ticket has recently been around €12, with reductions, and the gallery is normally closed on Mondays. Check the Pinacoteca Agnelli website for current prices and times.

Can you drive a car on the Lingotto roof?

Driving up the helical ramp was possible for years if you booked the rooftop restaurant. Access arrangements changed when the gallery reopened, so do not count on it without checking first.

Can you go on the roof of the Palavela?

No. The Palavela is a working sports and events venue and the roof is not accessible. You can walk right up to the building, and the roof itself is unchanged since 1969, so the location is still instantly recognisable from the ground.

Can you get into the courtyards where the gold was loaded?

Usually, yes. The courtyard of Palazzo Carignano, where the gold went into the Minis, is normally open.

Palazzo Lascaris, where the Dormobile was parked, is the seat of the Piedmont regional council and is guarded. You can often go in by asking for solo cortile at the door on the right, but ask before taking photographs.

Can you visit the Mirafiori factory?

No, the plant is not open to visitors. The thing to do is stand on the far side of Via Biscaretti di Ruffia and look back: the gap between the buildings that the Minis jumped is clearly visible from the road.

Which locations have changed the most?

Two have gone altogether: the pedestrian underpass by Porta Nuova has been filled in, and the underpass the Minis raced down off Piazza Vittorio Veneto no longer exists.

The Palavela was rebuilt underneath its roof for the 2006 Winter Olympics, and the Lingotto factory is now a shopping centre, cinema, gallery and hotel. Most of the rest — the arcades, the church steps, the weir, the courtyards — is remarkably unchanged.

About the film

Why did they use Minis instead of FIATs?

Gianni Agnelli, who ran FIAT, asked the production to use FIAT 500s and offered cash and free Ferraris to make it happen. Paramount reluctantly refused — the Minis were the point.

Agnelli helped anyway, giving access to the city and the FIAT factory, along with cars and extras. BMC, by contrast, would not supply Minis for free, though it has never missed a chance to capitalise on the film since.

How did they get permission to drive through the arcades?

With a pun. The Italian word macchina means both "car" and "camera". The production's fixer told owners and caretakers that Paramount wished to film and would be bringing in tre macchine. Everyone understood three cameras. They got three Minis.

Were the sewer scenes filmed in Turin?

No. The Minis went into the sewers in Coventry and came out of them in Turin, at the Sangone river bridge on Corso Unione Sovietica. It is the neatest piece of sleight of hand in the film and almost nobody notices.

Where was the coach cliffhanger filmed?

At the Colle del Nivolet, above Ceresole Reale in the Gran Paradiso. Stand at the top and look down at the road the coach was driving on — the third bend down is where Big William lost it.

Was anyone hurt making the film?

Yes. During filming at the gang's hide-out in the hills above the Gran Madre church, a stunt the director insisted on — using his own Rolls-Royce — went wrong on loose gravel and a camera loader was seriously injured. He made a full recovery, and the scene was never used.

Rémy Julienne had refused to perform that stunt and opposed it strongly.