I want Olivetti to be not just a factory, but a model, a lifestyle. I want it to produce freedom and beauty because it will be them, freedom and beauty, who will tell us how to be happy!
Adriano Olivetti was not only an entrepreneur with innovative ideas from the point of view of work organization. At the helm of the family business, he always brought great technological excellence, openness to internationality, attention to industrial design, as well as continuous innovations and great innovation in Olivetti products. His thought was so revolutionary that it seemed frighteningly current, also from the point of view of design, communication, the concept of “beauty”. In fact, many aspects of business that are common today, such as communication, brand care and development, advertising, graphics, the study of sociology and work psychology, were introduced by Adriano Olivetti well before the 1960s. in all Olivetti factories and stores in Italy and abroad.
A know-how that comes from far away
Since ancient times the population of this land works in mining and processing of metals. In Valchiusella, at Traversella you can visit the old mines, in Brosso the eco-museum of Brossasca and mineralogical museum Ca ‘d Martolo, while in Orco and Soana Valleys are the copper processing, with the eco-museum of Alpette and Ronco Forge.
The traditional nomadic jobs and rural life that have characterized these territories have led to a widespread presence in the area of eco-museums, small museums, factories and mills recovered and transformed into a place of visit. Among these, we remember the Chestnut Ecomuseum in Nomaglio, the museum of the territory in Ferranda Tower, Plastic Museum and the ethnographic Museum of Canteir in Pont Canavese, the Spaciafornel Museum in Locana, and many others.
In the area of Baltea river instead passes the Via Francigena, which was, since the High Middle Ages, the route taken by pilgrims from central and northern Europe to reach Rome. In 990 the Via was traveled, recorded and described in 79 days by the Archbishop Sigerico, returning to Canterbury from Rome, after the investiture of the archbishop’s pallium from Pope John XV. His diary is therefore the most authentic witness of the track, which in 2004 was declared by the Council of Europe “Great European Cultural Itinerary” similarly to the Camino de Santiago de Compostela in Spain. The Osteria La Sosta in Settimo Vittone, our member, is located right in an old Via Francigena “hospitale”, which is a place for rest and refreshment of pilgrims, as witnessed by the foundation plaque dating back to 894 AD .
In Canavese Valleys are particularly important also tradition linked to work and handicraft. We start from the tradition of Castellamonte ceramic and terracotta, a city that is home to numerous shops of ceramic artists, the Museum of Ceramics at Palazzo Botton, the Allaira Family house museum and Furnace Pagliero in Spineto.
Inside the building of the Furnace, that can be visited and houses permanent exhibitions, there is also the restaurant, our member, Peccati con Gusto. In Castellamonte is held annually between August and September, the Ceramics Exhibition, while in Castelnuovo Nigra, the main street is home to a permanent ceramic exibition dedicated to Nativity.
If you want to descover how they make the pottery and the ceramic handicraft and particularly the famous traditional stoves you can visit our member La Castellamonte.
