Turin

Economy

Nowadays the city is a major industrial centre, known particularly as home to the headquarters and main production lines of the car company Fiat. The city is home to the famous Lingotto building, which was at one time the largest car factory in the world, and is now a convention centre, concert hall, art gallery, shopping centre and hotel.

Related Topics:
Car - Company - Fiat - Lingotto - World - Convention centre - Concert hall - Hotel

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It is also a center for aerospace industry, with Alenia. Some major elements of the International Space Station, such as the Multi-Purpose Logistics Modules have been produced in Turin.

Related Topics:
Alenia - International Space Station - Multi-Purpose Logistics Modules

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The future European launcher projects beyond Ariane 5 will also be managed from Turin, by the new NGL company, a subsidiary of EADS (70%) and Finmeccanica (30%).

Related Topics:
Ariane 5 - NGL - EADS - Finmeccanica

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Turin is also the birthplace of major aspects of Italian economy, like telecommunications Telecom Italia, television (Rai, National TV channel) and cinema. Most of these industries have moved to other parts of Italy, but Turin still hosts the National Museum of Cinema.

Related Topics:
Telecom Italia - Rai - Italy

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The town currently has a large number of rail and road work sites. Although this activity has increased as a result of the 2006 Winter Olympics, part of it had been planned for a long time. Some of the work sites deal with general improvements to car traffic, like underpasses and flyovers. Two projects are of major impact and will change the shape of the town radically. One is the 'Spina' ('spine') which includes the doubling of a major railroad crossing the town; the railroad previously run in a trench, which will now be covered by a major boulevard; the town rail station on this line will become the main station of Turin ('Porta Susa'). The other major project is the construction of a metropolitan underground line; the first phase of this project will finish in time for the Olympic Games and will link the nearby town of Collegno with the 'Porta Nuova' station in Turin's town centre, but the project is supposed to be extended in future years to cover a larger part of the town. This underground transportation project has historical importance for Turin, as the town has dreamed of an underground line for decades, the first project dating as far back as the twenties. In fact, the main street in the town centre ('Via Roma') runs on top of a tunnel built during the fascist era (when 'Via Roma' was built); the tunnel was supposed to host the underground line and is now used as an underground car park.

Related Topics:
2006 Winter Olympics - Collegno

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