Short break: Italian national motor museum in Turin

The Museo dell’Automobile di Torino is the Italian national motor museum. It’s one of the world’s greatest — and it’s in a spectacular setting

The Museo dell’Automobile di Torino is the holy grail for anyone passionate about motor sport and motoring. Currently, the Turin museum is hosting an exhibition centred around the work of Leonardo Fioravanti, the engineer and designer who spent more than 50 years working for Pininfarina before setting up his own studio in 1987.

The range of famous Ferraris designed by Fioravanti includes the Dino, Daytona, Testarossa and F40 – the exhibition features many of those models and sketches out the story of his life, using drawings from his school days and unpublished photographs from his time working with Pininfarina.

Some of his ingenious concepts are also displayed, including the pioneering Alfa Vola that featured a rotating roof – this convertible mechanism was then used in the Ferrari Superamerica, based on the 575 Maranello.

The museum itself expands beyond that particular exhibit, with more than 200 cars occupying more than 200,000 square feet. Turin’s own motoring heritage is also documented thoroughly. It’s an architectural masterpiece too – spacious and modern – and the collection of cars is exhibited in appropriate style.

Entry costs €12 for adults, with discounts for those over the age of 65, students, children and journalists.

How to get there

Return non-stop flights to Turin from Stansted start from just £20, or you can fly to Milan for the same price and drive to Turin for the day. There’s a wide range of accommodation for every budget in either city.

Where to stay

The site of the first ever Formula 1 Grand Prix, held in 1946, is at the nearby Valentino Park, with Alberto Ascari’s grid slot set in stone. From Turin, Monza is about a two-hour drive (traffic permitting).

Don’t miss

One of the museum’s many highlights is a horde of Italian-built Grand Prix racing cars, from the 1950s through to the millennial Formula 1 cars of the Michael Schumacher era.