The Visitor Centre today is ... Lavazza Museum
- JULIE WHITE
- 3 days ago
- 22 min read
From humble beginnings, to global coffee brand, Lavazza's immersive museum tells a story of initiative, inventiveness, and Italian passion.
Italians love their coffee. It’s part of their culture and might as well be part of their DNA. The family owned Lavazza brand started with a small grocery store in 1895, and has gone on to become a global emblem of not just coffee, but of Italy itself. In a global coffee market dominated by multinationals, family ownership at this scale is rarer than it sounds. illycaffè, Melitta, Tchibo, and Paulig are among the few others that can say the same. Like Lavazza, all of them are proud of it.
The numbers tell their own story too. Luigi Lavazza S.p.A. claims to be the choice of 16 out of 20 million families in Italy and is branded as 'Italy's favourite coffee'. The brand sells instant, ground, pod, and bean coffee, plus coffee machines, across 8 manufacturing plants worldwide. In 2025, the Group reported revenues of €3.9 billion, a 15.7% increase on the previous year. They're a long way from that first grocery shop on Via San Tommaso. Lavazza is everywhere.
Based in Turin, Italy’s most industrial city, Lavazza's home is in a location not often on the tourist radar, with most preferring to head to the big hitters like Venice, Rome, Florence and Milan. But those travellers are missing a trick, trust me. Turin has many cultural treasures, and is one of those cities that rewards the curious. I loved it. For those industrial tourism fans, like me, that are looking for a brand experience, then Turin isn't just the home of coffee, but motoring behemoth Fiat, global drinks firm Martini and sporting giant Juventus. You can visit them all like I did. The Piedmont region has its own set of customs and delicacies, alpine scenery, vineyards, rice fields, Roman ruins and scenic drives. It is a massively underrated destination that is begging to be explored.
We knew very little about the brand's history before our visit. What we did not expect was such an immersive and educational experience at the Lavazza Museum, in an architectural gem of a building, that would capture our imagination, and make us appreciate our daily espresso even more.
Visiting Lavazza Museum: What to Expect
The brand history
Luigi Lavazza's story is yet another of success from humble beginnings. He was born on April 24, 1859, in the small town of Murisengo, 30 miles from Turin, and grew up as a peasant farmer. But times were hard. After a couple of poor harvests, he left, aged 26, and headed for the big city, moving to Turin to seek his fortune.
Turin at the time, along with Milan, was leading the Italian industrial revolution. Hardworking Luigi worked in various jobs during the day and attended trade school at night, where he earned a diploma in chemistry.
In 1895, he made an investment that changed his life and the Italian coffee industry forever. Using his savings, and a loan from a former employer, Luigi opened a small grocery store, Drogheria Lavazza, in Via San Tommaso, in the historic district of the city.
At the time coffee blends for domestic consumption did not exist and the coffee you could buy was inconsistent in quality and flavour. To serve his wealthy and travelled clientele, Luigi opened a workshop in the rear of his store, where he put his studies in chemistry to the test. He experimented with roasting and grinding different varieties of coffee beans from his supplier in Genoa. He became a coffee scholar, studying coffee plant botany and its unique characteristics, even travelling to Brazil to learn from the experts. He was, in the best possible sense, obsessed.
Coffee culture had witnessed a seismic change in a few short years. In 1884 Italian inventor, Angelo Moriondo, presented his Espresso Machine at the Italian Great Exhibition in Turin, the first patented in the world. Now coffee could be brewed in bulk. However, he never took this into full production.
Fast forward to 1901, and Milanese engineer Luigi Bezzera patented his single-serving espresso machine, designed for increased throughput and cost-effectiveness. This was exhibited under the name Bezzera L. Caffè Espresso at the World's Fair in Milan in 1906.
Suddenly the Italians and the world had a new way of drinking coffee, the espresso.
Back in Turin, and to meet increased demand, Luigi Lavazza installed new automatic roasting machines and his store became a manufacturing site. Business flourished, and Luigi founded Luigi Lavazza SpA in 1927. It was a true family concern and included his wife Emilia and their children Maria, Mario, Pericle, and Giuseppe.
During the 1930s, the consumption of coffee in the home grew in popularity and Lavazza introduced vacuum packaging, which helped preserve the aroma and flavour of the beans. This meant that their coffee could be transported further afield and stored for longer and new markets emerged.
In 1935, the Brazilian government invited Luigi to visit the country. His two month, fact-finding trip was the last he made before handing the company over to his children the following year. Luigi was a farmer at heart and was shocked at the living and environmental conditions in and around the coffee plantations he visited. He returned to Italy, vowing to protect the natural environment, a mission that has been at the forefront of the company ever since.
The Second World War years saw Mussolini ban all coffee imports and the Lavazza factory bombed. To stay afloat, the brand reverted to its grocery heritage, selling staples such as oil, soap, and candles. It was not until after the war that coffee production resumed.
Packaging increasingly became a promotional tool. In 1946 the first logo was created for Lavazza and in 1957 the brand started advertising on television.
In the following decades, Lavazza continued to expand its presence, both domestically and internationally. It opened subsidiaries and established partnerships in different countries, gradually becoming a global brand, operating in more than 140 countries.
Lavazza's commitment to innovation led to advancements in coffee technology, such as the development of their own coffee machines and coffee capsules in the 1980s and beyond.
In 1979 they established the Lavazza Training Center, teaching all aspects of coffee from its origins to processing, distribution, and consumption. Today it is the largest coffee training network in the world, with eight centers in Italy and 47 throughout the world.
In 2004, The Giuseppe e Pericle Lavazza Foundation, an NPO, was founded, to improve living conditions in coffee-producing countries, sustainability, and ethical sourcing. It has implemented various initiatives to promote responsible coffee production and support coffee-growing communities. In their ‘Roadmap to Zero’ plan, Lavazza pledged to attain carbon neutrality by 2030 by offsetting indirect emissions from all aspects of its supply chains.
The brand has expanded its product range to include single-origin coffees, organic blends, and specialty coffees to cater to the evolving preferences of consumers.
Lavazza remains a family-owned business, with the fourth generation of the Lavazza family actively involved in its management, Giuseppe as Chairman, Marco as Vice Chairman, and Antonella, Francesca, and Manuela all serving on the board. In a world of fast consolidation and corporate buyouts, that is rarer than it sounds, and you feel it in the museum. This is not a brand performing its heritage. It is a family living it.
The Visitor Centre design
Lavazza's beating heart is a stunning €120 million headquarters development in the city's Aurora district, a few hundred metres away from the company's old headquarters.
The building is part of a regeneration project of the former Enel power station. The museum opened on 8th June 2018, designed by Cino Zucchi Architects, and inspired by a cloud, it's an architecture lovers dream. The buildings were created with sustainability as the main goal, and are one of the top three most sustainable buildings in Italy, and one of the most sustainable in the world.
The design process began in 2010 for a building to accommodate a workforce of 600, including the brand's Research and Development team, plus a brand museum and cultural hub. But the building had a surprise in store. In 2014, during excavation work ahead of construction, workers unearthed the ruins of an early Christian basilica dating to the second half of the 4th–5th century AD. Now known as the Basilica di San Secondo, and thought to have been dedicated to the martyred Saint Secundus, the site covers around 1,600 square metres and has been beautifully integrated into the architectural design by Cino Zucchi. It is open to visitors on guided tours led by specialist archaeologists, though booking ahead is essential and a minimum group size applies. I love it when a building has secrets.
The multimedia for the visitor centre was by Ralph Applebaum Associates, who have worked on award-winning projects across the world that I have enjoyed, such as The Imperial War Museum, London, the Ikea Museum, Culloden Battlefield Museum, and the International Slavery Museum and Maritime Museum in Liverpool’s Albert Dock, only a few miles from my childhood home and a place we regularly visited on school trips. They were also responsible for the revamp of Edinburgh’s excellent National Museum of Scotland, just 40 minutes from my front door.
The whole design was a truly collaborative, artistic affair, with input from chefs, film set designers and museum designers. Even little details such as the text accompanying the installations, were created by students of a creative writing school, under the watchful eye of the Italian writer Alessandro Baricco.
Entrance
Having booked online, we arrived at the museum on a quiet October afternoon.
The staircase alone deserves a photograph or two. We were handed a lanyard with a ceramic espresso cup attached, a device that is designed to connect seamlessly with the exhibits throughout the museum, via an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) chip. We were interested to see just how well it worked, as technology has a habit of letting you down.
The only other exhibits in the entrance space are two historic Lavazza delivery vans. I have a passion for an old van with a logo, so I was happy.
A set of double doors opens, and you're free to explore the five galleries within the museum at your own pace, which, for me, is very slowly. The museum is designed to impart the brand's ethos and to inspire the visitor. Novelist, playwright, and journalist Alessandro Baricco sums it up in a quote on the wall as you enter;
"Museums are maps: the only ones which we have to retrace steps through the maze of our memory." (Alessandro Baricco)
Casa Lavazza
The first gallery is dedicated to the origins of the brand, a story told through a series of audio/visual displays, artefacts, and interactive elements.
The gallery opens with Luigi's story and the emphasis, from the very first panel, is on family. It does not feel like spin. The Lavazza Milestones Wall lays out the company timeline with archive photographs and objects from the collection, simple, effective, and the kind of thing you could spend far longer in front of than you planned.
Next, we arrive at the first cup interactive point, so we take a seat (though we wished there were two of them), to see what this cup gives us access to.
A light appears and launches an experience. This could be a sound recording, a video, a projection, a picture, or the chance to download content as you go. It became a bit like a treasure hunt, and a fun way of interacting with the brand story. Each place we placed our cup worked seamlessly. Now that's impressive.
The bonus of the cup device is that you are free to wander around and access the brand story and all the interactive elements in any way you see fit. There are no set guidelines or time limits. You might, like me, be drawn to the artwork in the display on Lavazza Stickers, used in marketing initiatives.
Or you could check out the desk, a nod to Luigi's desk in his office.
The interactive family history table is a highlight, beautifully presented and packed with archive material. It is also the first genuine bottleneck in the museum. With only one table and a lot of people wanting access, you will likely end up grabbing snippets rather than settling in. Worth flagging to Lavazza: a second table here would transform the experience.
Turn another corner and you enter a recreation of the original grocery store, surrounded by coffee paraphernalia.
A stunning example of an early espresso machine sits on the counter. Anyone who enjoys old fonts and bits of machinery, like me, will enjoy the artefacts here.
There are plenty of drawers to pull out and find more information on the brand.
Turn another corner and you are in a small gallery focussing on Lavazza's links to sport.
The company has been active in the world of tennis for many years. In November 2015, Lavazza became the first food and beverage brand in the world to partner all four Grand Slam tournaments, adding the Australian Open to their existing partnerships with Wimbledon, Roland-Garros, and the US Open. To mark the occasion, they launched a global campaign in 2016 fronted by tennis legend Andre Agassi, a neat piece of storytelling, given that Agassi had been away from the game for a decade, and Lavazza framed it as a comeback for both of them. The Australian Open partnership has since ended, but Lavazza remains the official coffee sponsor at the other three Grand Slams, with their US Open partnership now in its tenth year.
Lavazza has also made its mark in football. The brand became the Official Coffee of Arsenal in November 2018, a partnership renewed in 2021 and extended to Arsenal Women, and of Juventus in September 2020. The Turin connection makes the Juventus partnership feel particularly fitting: two iconic brands, born in the same city, both built on a reputation for excellence. Lavazza coffee is now served across the Allianz Stadium, from the bars to the hospitality boxes.
La Fabbrica
La Fabbrica is the second immersive gallery visitors encounter, focusing on the sensory attributes of coffee, tracing the production processes from growing, and harvesting, through to distribution and information on the growers themselves.
The long gallery has different content on both walls, which flank a central exhibit table. One side of the table has content in English, and the opposite side has content in Italian and there are interactive elements all along the displays.
You can smell the aroma of the coffee plants and forest.
You can smell and touch the beans and coffee cherries used in the different production methods, though they smelt of very little and could do with refreshing.
Visitors can play with a model to learn about the different parts of the coffee cherry. It reminded me of one of those 1960s egg chairs.
A few times we found ourselves in a minor standoff. We wanted the English content, the guests opposite wanted the Italian, and the screen could only oblige one of us at a time. A couple of people drifted away assuming it was broken. Two smaller screens running simultaneously would have solved it in an instant. That said, the content itself was worth the wait. We got to virtually grow our own coffee, battling bugs, drought, and my poor attempts at pruning.
What I appreciated most in this section were the photographs of the actual farmers. It sounds like a small thing, but it matters. Coffee is one of the most consumed commodities on the planet, and it is very easy to forget that every cup begins with a person, in a field, in a country most of us will never visit. Lavazza sources from Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Brazil, Indonesia, Uganda, Mexico, and the United States, a reminder of just how global the supply chain is. Most of their blends combine Arabica and Robusta beans, though some lines are pure Arabica.
The next display explains the classification of coffee, the art of blending, and how decaffeinated is made.
The final section of the gallery covers packaging and distribution, which sounds dry on paper but is actually more interesting than you might expect. Seeing the scale of what goes into getting coffee from a farm in Uganda or Colombia onto a supermarket shelf in Edinburgh is genuinely eye-opening. The sustainability credentials are woven throughout, recycled materials in the packaging, a scheme to repurpose used coffee grounds, and after everything you have learned about Luigi's vow to protect the natural environment after his 1935 trip to Brazil, it feels less like a corporate tick-box and more like a thread running through the whole story.
I especially enjoyed interacting with the sliding interactive displays here. So much detail.
La Piazza
The next gallery is dedicated to the historic coffee machines. The engineering on show ranges from a prototype of a capsule machine from the 1980s to stunning machines from a bygone era to a coffee machine that went into space. There's a reproduction of Moriondo's coffee machine from 1884.
Not all of them had to be beautiful, some are purely functional.
There's a smart Faema E-61 machine from 1961.
But some are truly stunning, like the La Pavoni Model Ideale 2 cups from 1910.
The first espresso coffee capsule machine in space, the ISPRESSO, was made by Argotec for Lavazza and ended up aboard the International Space Station in 2015. Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti made the first espresso coffee in history in a state of microgravity.
L’Atelier
The next gallery showcases the most popular Lavazza advertising campaigns throughout the company’s history. First, you have to check out their fabulous orange Lavazza van. In 1959, during the design show Turin Salone del Mobile, Lavazza unveiled its first 'Autobar', designed by Italian coachbuilder Carrozzeria Boneschi.
This gave the brand a new way to connect with its customers. This was in a time before coffee vans were as prevalent as they are today, so they would have created quite the talking point. The brand was certainly ahead of its time. The example in the museum is a Fiat 241 Autobar and I have found some images of the original Autobar in action.
Large and proud are the brand's characters Cabellero and Carmecita, that featured in advertising from the 1960s.
And then you enter a gallery where you can pretend to be in the iconic TV advertisements, not that we know any of them, being from the UK.
The advertising images were interesting to look at though. I am sure the whole area would make more sense to the Italian visitors and they could wallow in nostalgia for a while.
L’Universo
You're nearly at the coffee tasting, and by now you'll be needing one. You walk through an immersive 360-degree multimedia gallery, where you pass through the permeable curtain walls, interact with the touch table, and collect and share personalised digital information and memories of your experience. You are surrounded by projections accompanied by mood-enhancing music and natural sounds. It's very ethereal.
Excitement builds, as you're heading to the last stop on your visit and to the tasting bar.
The bar is in a sleek and stark contrast to the installations that preceded it. We are offered a cherry lemonade/coffee concoction, 3/4 cherry (cordial or lemonade, we weren't told which), ice, and then a shot of espresso or cold brew. The guests next to us got way more coffee in theirs and ours tasted just of cherry. It was delicious, however. We also get an espresso, which perked us up.
This is the final interactive stop for our trusty coffee cup. We enter our contact details and expect little apart from being bombarded with marketing.
There is no seating. Okay, so most people would down their espresso in one. But a little bit of theatre and a seat for some dwell time would have been advantageous if only to give us time to find out which coffee we'd just been served, so we could buy it in the shop.
The store
The store is bright and well laid out and filled with not just coffee but some design-led souvenirs.
There was some coffee, but not too much and most of it looked like it was special editions just for the museum. We bought a packet anyway and a stovetop coffee pot, which we hoped we couldn't buy at home.
And out we headed into the piazza.
The gardens and surrounding area have been redeveloped and offered a welcome rest before we headed back on the bus.
That red coffee pot is what we had just purchased. Luckily ours would fit into hand luggage!
Archivio Storico Lavazza
Next to the museum is the Archivio Storico Lavazza, home to the brand archive, containing 8,500 documents, stories, and images recounting 120 years of the company's history.
La Centrale at Nuvola Lavazza
Next to the museum is La Centrale, a multi-use venue spanning 4,500 square metres, set in the Aurora district’s former power plant. La Centrale is home to a Convention Centre, an event space, a Michelin-starred restaurant called Condividere, and a Bistrot. The restoration project preserved the original 1897 structure, mixing its glorious industrial charm with modern facilities and function.
Dante Ferretti, the Italian Academy Award-winning artistic director of movies The Aviator and Sweeney Todd, consulted on the design of the spaces, with the menu created by the award-winning Spanish chef Ferran Adrià, pioneer of molecular gastronomy and considered to be a culinary superstar.
Lavazza Casa 1895
Also designed by Ralph Applebaum Associates, is the brand's factory tour experience Casa 1895, home to the Group's specialty coffee brand, focused on single-origin and blended coffees from independent, sustainable plantations.
The name is a nod to the founding year, but the building is anything but nostalgic. Located at Lavazza's historic Settimo Torinese plant, about 15 minutes north of Turin, the facility was completely refurbished by architect Paolo Uboldi of UP-A. The brief was total transparency: visitors walk above the production machinery on a bridge made of bamboo, chosen not just for its sustainability credentials but because bamboo is, quite literally, a grass that grows alongside coffee in many of the regions where Lavazza sources its beans. The machines are running below you the entire time. It is a genuinely unusual experience, and one that makes the "from bean to cup" story feel considerably less abstract.
I can't find any way to book this, but it'll be on my bucket list when I return to Turin.
After the visit
So, what else did those coffee cups give us? Well, what we got a few minutes after our visit, was an email. In it was all the content we had saved when going around the museum using our interactive cups. This included any pictures we saved, all the added content we asked for, information about each section of the museum, pictures of all the coffee farmers, and more. The only thing that wasn't included is a link to the coffee we were served in the bar, or recipes to make the cocktail-style drink served alongside it. This would have allowed us to purchase the ingredients back home. However, as far as brand advocacy goes, the speed of their contact and the contents are to be commended.
If you want to learn more
I found a cracking little book from Lavazza called Lavazza Design People written by Virginio Briatore in 2020 in a second hand store. Not only does it trace the history of Lavazza’s partnerships with many international designers, but it gives a potted history of the brand too.
In conclusion
My trip to the Lavazza Museum was an unexpected treat, and I mean that sincerely. Yes, Lavazza is everywhere, but we found the family story authentic, the sustainability message honest, and the building itself will have design lovers drooling. They are a behemoth, yes, but a thoughtful one.
The clever little interactive cup system unlocked genuinely impressive amounts of content. My one wish is that you got to keep them. A branded espresso cup as a memento would have been a lovely touch, and I suspect most visitors would happily have paid an extra €5 for one as part of the ticket. Small enough for hand luggage, it's the kind of thing that sits on a kitchen shelf and keeps the story going long after the visit.
A few practical notes for Lavazza, offered in the spirit of constructive feedback rather than complaint. The volume of content is enormous, which is a lovely problem to have, but it does mean that the cup interactive areas get congested when the museum is busy. Shorter content clips and more hotspots dotted about would ease the flow considerably. One cup between two of us proved tricky too. My other half is one of those people that reads absolutely everything. He's an engineer. My brain has me going off on tangents. That's the designer in me. Which brings me onto the next suggestion, more seating. As there's so much to absorb, a sit down mid journey would have been welcome, even if it was just somewhere to perch while I watched my husband methodically work out what every knob and lever on the vintage espresso machines actually did.
The museum is currently in English and Italian, which suited us perfectly, but will limit the experience for a significant portion of international visitors. Worth addressing as the museum's reputation grows.
And please, refresh the sensory exhibits. The olfactory displays in La Fabbrica had lost their scent. It is a small thing, but it is always a disappointment, and Lavazza is far from alone in letting this slip.
None of this diminishes what is, overall, a genuinely excellent brand museum. The branded Carmencita pot and bags of coffee (now empty) that I bought in the museum shop, sit on the shelves next to my oven. I have visited their London flagship (guide coming soon). But it's their Casa 1895 Factory experience that is top of my to do list.
Do not let the ubiquity of the brand and coffee's complicated sustainability reputation put you off. Lavazza's 'Roadmap to Zero' pledge, their farmer support programmes, and the thread that runs all the way back to Luigi's 1935 Brazil trip suggest a brand that has been thinking about this longer than most. Whether the ambition holds at scale remains to be seen. But the museum makes a credible case, and I left believing the commitment is genuine. Lavazza has worked hard for its place in the world, and this museum tells that story with care, intelligence, and more than a dash of style. Do not miss it.
How long was the visit?
We had a 3 pm ticket and left 3 hours later.
How much are tickets?
We paid for our own tickets and this was not part of any advertising.
Adults: 10 €
Over 65, under 26, concessions: 8 €
Guided Tour of the Archaeological Area at the Lavazza Museum (15 people minimum) and Museum entry: €15
Opening times
It's always worth checking with the Lavazza Museum for their current opening times, as they can vary.
When we visited the museum was open on the museum was open from Wednesday to Sunday, 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. (last admission at 5:30 p.m.)
Address: Via Bologna, 32, 10152 Torino TO, Italy
Website: Museo Lavazza
Where we stayed:
We were based in Turin for 5 nights at a fabulous hotel found through Booking.com called the Opera 35 Suite & Studio, in a standard room. It beat the 5-star hotel we stayed at in Milan.
The staff were friendly and gave us some great recommendations for dinner and for things to see. The hotel is in a restored neoclassical, Belle Epoque mansion. It is near the river, which made it much quieter than staying in the main tourist area, yet it was only a 15 minute walk to the main tourist piazzas.
I booked the hotel as it had some outdoor space, a large courtyard which has some seating in it, and a respite from the heat. It was October but still mid twenties and T-shirt weather.
The room was simply furnished, with a frescoed ceiling, but it was all we needed. An added bonus was that when we booked we got a free car pickup from the airport to the hotel, in a very nice Mercedes with a fabulous driver called Walter, who sped through the city streets and deposited us and our luggage at the door. No need for a hire car this time. We didn't have breakfast included, so grabbed this when out and about in the city.
Top Tip - Not many places are open for dinner on a Sunday, or even a Monday for that matter. It's a post-pandemic issue in many places we travel to now.
For dinner on two nights we were recommended the excellent Pastificio Defilippis, which has been family run since 1872. It makes pasta, which you can buy in their beautiful store. We sat outside and had two amazing meals, that were authentic and just like Mamma used to make! Pasta never tasted so good and the wine was pretty darned good too. Save room for the enormous Tiramisu. It's to die for.
Getting here:
The airport (Aeroporto di Torino) is 14km from the Lavazza Museum. A Taxi from the airport to the city centre costs about €30 and takes about 30 minutes. There is an official taxi rank outside the Arrival Hall. We struck lucky and got a private taxi included in our hotel booking.
For travellers on a budget, a great alternative is to take the Arriva bus No. 268. The bus is direct from Turin airport, taking 40 minutes to reach the city centre and costs €4. You can purchase your tickets at the airport vending machines or directly from the bus driver with a €1 supplement. However, you will have to find your way to your Turin hotel, which can be difficult when travelling with heavy luggage.
Turin Airport Train Station can be found a few metres away facing the main terminal. sfMA railway links the airport to Turin's Stazione Dora Railway Station in just over 20 minutes, every working day from 5:04 am to 9:03 pm.
The city is served by 2 main train stations, one of which we used to travel to Milan from, on a high-speed bullet train, a journey that lasted less than an hour. The trains we found to be very good indeed, so consider using them to venture further afield.
Once in the city, we bought a 5-day travel pass, which you need to pick up at a local tobacconist shop. The bus and tram network is great around town and we used it to get to the furthest reaches of their network without any bother, though it can take a little while to get there. Google Maps helped enormously with planning our routes.
But the joy for us was the trams. There are modern trams in the city, but if you're in town on a weekend, try to ride the free historic tram Route 7, which departs every 30 min from Piazza Castello. On the day we travelled, we got a free tour guide on board (all in Italian) who handed out a book on the tram's restoration.
What else is there to see close by:
Turin is Italy’s fourth largest city and one of the most underrated holiday destinations in the country. We loved our 5 day visit.
Palazzo Reale is a real gem and your jaw will drop in every room. Built in 1646, it served as a royal residence until 1865. Today, you can visit various sections of the palace in all its gilded wonder. The Royal Armory and its impressive collection of stuffed horses with their armored riders is a must-see, as are the impressive chandeliers in nearly every room. It's a mere 20 minute stroll from the Lavazza Museum.
Parco del Valentino, is a lovely riverside park, home to some pretty gardens and rowing clubs and the local police horse stable.
Museo Nazionale dell’Automobile is a fabulous car museum and should not be missed when in the city. It's about 40 minutes on public transport from Lavazza Museum and well worth a trip.
Italian Job film fans can also walk around the iconic rooftop circuit of Fiat's Lingotto factory, which is now a hospital and shopping mall. The rooftop has been converted into a garden. Film and car fans can still see the famous spiral rampways and get great views across the city. It is right next to the Lingotto metro station.
Turin’s Museo Egizio (Egyptian Museum) is revered globally for its vast collection of Egyptian antiquities and academic research credentials, rivalling the British Museum in London and the Louvre in Paris. It's 30 minutes walk from Lavazza and easily accessible by bus.
Located in the Mole Antonelliana, the National Museum of Cinema has visitors flocking to it, not just for the museum, but to ride in its elevator. It's a unique mode of transport and you can access the viewing platform at the top of the building, which offers amazing views of the city and mountains beyond. We tried to get there, but it had closed unexpectedly for maintenance, so we'll have to try again next time we visit. It's not for those scared of heights!
There's much more, so it is worth making at least a long weekend trip if you can.
Further reading
Food and beverage fans, if you liked this article then check out our guide to Pez, Starbucks Reserve Roastery in Chicago, Wensleydale Creamery and World of Coca Cola. More food and beverage related visitor guides coming soon.
Please note - I'm real
I visit every brand visitor centre and experience myself. My feedback is real, based on a single visit, but informed by years of experience designing and exploring brand experiences all over the world.
I love writing my own reflections, diving into a brand's history, doing the research and looking at spaces through the eyes of a commercial interior designer. With over 30 years of working with customers, I also enjoy watching how guests interact with guides, displays and spaces. Everything I share is honest, personal and entirely human, not AI generated.
That authenticity is important to me, and if it's important to you and you want to work with me, or share your experiences or want to suggest others, then I am happy to be contacted via this website.
Photographs: ©Julie White unless noted otherwise
Disclaimer - The views and opinions expressed are solely my own. I paid for the tours in full and any comments reflect my personal experiences on that day. Please drink responsibly. Please visit and garner your own thoughts and feel free to research the brand and the visitor centre in question.
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