Piedmont · Torino
Ivrea
Roman Eporedia, Olivetti's twentieth-century industrial city, UNESCO since 2018, where every February three hundred tons of oranges are thrown.
- Best time
- Apr–Oct
- By car
- 56 min from Turin
- By train
- Station in the comune
- Population
- 22,357
Known for
OLIVETTI CITY
Adriano Olivetti's industrial city rebuilt 1945-1955, UNESCO World Heritage since 2018, with glass factories, worker housing, and the Programma 101 from 1965.
BATTLE OF ORANGES
300-700 tons of oranges thrown each February by costumed teams reenacting a 1200 revolt; nine teams on foot against shooters on wagons.
EPOREDIA
Roman foundation in 100 BC as a military outpost on the Alpine route, later capital of the March of Ivrea and briefly of the Kingdom of Italy.
ERBALUCE DI CALUSO / CALUSO
The commune lies inside the Erbaluce di Caluso / Caluso DOCG production zone.
When to visit
Best · Apr–Oct
- J8°
- F11°
- M13°
- A17°
- M20°
- J25°
- J28°
- A28°
- S23°
- O18°
- N12°
- D8°
- Best
- Hot or crowded
- Quiet
- Mostly closed
Daytime averages, 2020–2024. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.
The festa: Savino di Spoleto, 4 July
Why come
Ivrea sits where the town meets the river that drains the Aosta valley before it reaches the Po, the Dora Baltea, guarding the Alpine routes into Gaul that made the site worth fortifying in the first place. The medieval town grew upward from that Roman garrison into a seat of regional power, and centuries later the same streets became the frame for an industrial experiment: Camillo Olivetti opened a typewriter factory here in 1908, and his son Adriano rebuilt the town around its workers, threading glass-walled plants, housing, schools, libraries, and cultural centers into the landscape rather than beside it. The Cinque Laghi lie north of the center, five small lakes left by the Balteo glacier, a different register of water from the Dora Baltea that carried the Roman and industrial town below. The layers do not so much replace each other as sit stacked: a Roman garrison town, a medieval capital, and a twentieth-century factory city occupy the same ground on the same river, and the carnival each February, with its reenacted revolt, is the one moment the town stages its own long memory in public.
The Sunday letter
Ivrea is on our list. Its letter is still to come.
We are writing about all 1,000 of these towns, one at a time, in a free letter every Sunday: the photo, the food, the festa. That is our mission. Sign up and you will be there when Ivrea comes up. By Peter & Sophia, from Pietrasanta.
Read on
Ivrea in our articles
The best wine towns within an hour of Turin6 towns, Ivrea among them.
The best towns that eat well within an hour of Turin7 towns, Ivrea among them.
The best towns with a World Heritage site that eat well in Piemonte7 towns, Ivrea among them.
The best towns with a World Heritage site within 75 minutes of Turin7 towns, Ivrea among them.
How to get there
From Turin (TRN), about 53 minutes by car.
Milan (BGY) is about 2 hours away.
By car from the centre of Genoa 2h 13m.
There is a railway station in the comune, so you can arrive without a car.
Coming from Turin, Milan or Genoa?
Coming by train into Torino Porta Susa? Ivrea is about 53 minutes away by road.
What to see
Castello di Ivrea
Fourteenth-century red-brick castle of the Savoy on the hill above the centro storico, with four towers and views over the Dora Baltea.
Duomo di Santa Maria Assunta
Ninth-century cathedral on the site of a Roman temple, with Romanesque crypt and bell tower, the religious anchor of medieval Ivrea.
MAAM - Museo a Cielo Aperto dell'Architettura Moderna
Open-air museum of the ICO factories and the Talponia underground housing, walkable ground for tracing how the glass-walled plants and worker facilities sit against the town.
Storico Carnevale di Ivrea
Nine teams on foot face shooters on wagons through the streets of the centro storico, the orange pulp underfoot by the end of the day.
Cinque Laghi di Ivrea
Five small morainic lakes north of the town, formed by the Balteo glacier, with walking paths and swimming areas, a cooler counterpoint to the river below.
The slow-trip planner
Building a trip? Find where Ivrea fits in a slow Italy circuit.
Answer five questions. We will shape a geographically coherent slow trip from the 1,000 Italian towns most travelers skip. Yours to save and share.
We recommend
Where to eat
Not our picks, but places the guides put their name to: a Michelin star, a Gambero Rosso fork, a Slow Food snail, a Michelin Key for the hotels. Worth a table, a counter, or a night when you pass through.
La MugnaiaRistorante
La Mugnaia has two Gambero Rosso forks (80/100) to its name.
Living here
- Population 22,357
- A local hubi
- Pharmacy in town
- High school within a 30-minute drive
- Train station in the comune
- Nearest airport Turin, 53 min drive
- Market day Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday
- Regional capital Torino, 56 min drive
Common questions
- What is Ivrea known for?
- Roman Eporedia, Olivetti's twentieth-century industrial city, UNESCO since 2018, where every February three hundred tons of oranges are thrown.
- Where is Ivrea?
- Ivrea is a comune in the province of Torino, in Piedmont, at 267 meters above sea level.
- What is the nearest airport to Ivrea?
- Turin (TRN), about 53 minutes by car.
- Can you get to Ivrea without a car?
- Yes. There is a railway station in the comune, so you can arrive by train.
- How long is the drive from Genoa to Ivrea?
- About 2h 13m by car.
- When is the best time to visit Ivrea?
- Best in Apr–Oct. August is the warmest month, averaging 28 degrees, and May the wettest, with about 16 rain days.
- Is there a sagra or a festival in Ivrea?
- The town keeps its patron saint's day: Savino di Spoleto, 4 July.
- Which other towns are like Ivrea?
- Domodossola, Sondrio and Feltre.
- How many people live in Ivrea?
- 22,357 at the 2023 count.
Tags & datadesignations · numbers · sources
Recognised as
The numbers
- Elevation: 267 m
- Population: 22,357
- Surface area: 30.11 km²
These figures were compiled from public directories: ISTAT, OpenStreetMap and Wikidata, and from the official listings of the guides named on this page. Town details change; verify with official sources before you travel.
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🏛️ UNESCO
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