“Industrial city of the 20th century:” this is how Ivrea has been recently introduced to the UNESCO World Heritage List, at the beginning of the month of July. Ivrea is little known outside of Italy, but its most beloved son, Adriano Olivetti, is famous, appreciated and esteemed around the world.

A name, that of Olivetti, synonym with innovation and Made in Italy, but also with work ethics, family values and respect for the employee. He was profoundly Italian, Adriano Olivetti, but somehow also tied to the US, a country he visited in 1925, at the tender age of 24, to learn English and better understand how its industrial power developed and continued to grow.