Museo Storico Alfa Romeo
The Museo Storico Alfa Romeo — officially “La Macchina del Tempo” (The Time Machine) — is the permanent home of Alfa Romeo’s historical collection, housed at the company’s former main plant complex on Viale Alfa Romeo in Arese, on the north-western outskirts of Milan. Arese became Alfa Romeo’s principal site when the company relocated from the original Portello factory in 1963; the new plant was, for decades, one of the largest automotive manufacturing complexes in Italy. The impetus for a museum came from Luigi Fusi, an Alfa Romeo designer and the company’s foremost internal historian. Working from the early 1960s onwards, Fusi persuaded company president Giuseppe Luraghi to support a collection project — locating, restoring, and cataloguing surviving historic cars and artefacts, many of which had been scattered across Italy in private hands or were deteriorating in storage. The collection was formally inaugurated as a museum in 1976, housed within the Arese complex. Demand was managed by appointment only; the museum was not open to the general public.
The museum closed in 2011 following the decommissioning of the Arese production facility — as Alfa Romeo consolidated manufacturing at Cassino and Pomigliano d’Arco, the Arese site lost its operational centre, and the museum lost its institutional context. It remained dormant for four years. In 2015, as part of a deliberate effort to rebuild Alfa Romeo’s brand identity ahead of new product launches, the museum was substantially renovated and reopened as “La Macchina del Tempo.” The inauguration took place on 24 June 2015 — Alfa Romeo’s 105th anniversary — with a ceremony that doubled as the world premiere of the new Alfa Romeo Giulia 2016. The car was unveiled in the museum’s grounds that evening, in what was explicitly staged as a symbolic act: the brand’s past and its present in the same space, on the same night. Public opening followed on 30 June 2015.
The renovated museum displays 69 vehicles across three thematic floors organised around the core pillars of Alfa Romeo’s identity. The Timeline floor presents 19 cars tracing the brand’s development from the first A.L.F.A. 24 HP of 1910 to contemporary models. The Beauty floor celebrates coachbuilt and design masterpieces — the Alfa Romeo Disco Volante C52, the BAT (Berlinetta Aerodinamica Tecnica) concept cars designed by Bertone, and the Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale. The Speed floor holds the racing machinery: the Alfa Romeo 158 and 159 Alfetta — Juan Manuel Fangio’s World Championship cars — alongside the Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 TT 12 championship prototype, the Alfa Romeo 155 V6 Ti DTM race car, and other competition artefacts. A helical light installation running vertically through the building is the visual centrepiece of the renovation, symbolising the continuity of Alfa Romeo’s design language across time. A bold “Alfa red” architectural addition, visible from the adjacent motorway, announces the building’s rebirth. The site also includes a bookshop, café, documentation centre, test-drive track for historic vehicles, events spaces, and a showroom with customer delivery area.
Connections
- Alfa Romeo — permanent institutional home of the marque’s historical collection, source: museoalfaromeo.com
- Alfa Romeo Giulia 2016 — world premiere held at the museum on 24 June 2015 (reopening night), source: stellantis.com
- Alfa Romeo 158 — 158/159 Alfetta on permanent display, Speed floor, source: museoalfaromeo.com
- Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 — Tipo 33 TT 12 championship car on permanent display, Speed floor, source: museoalfaromeo.com
- Alfa Romeo Disco Volante — Disco Volante C52 on permanent display, Beauty floor, source: museoalfaromeo.com
- Alfa Romeo 155 V6 Ti DTM — DTM race car on permanent display, Speed floor, source: museoalfaromeo.com
- Bertone — BAT concept cars (Bertone-designed) are signature exhibits in the Beauty floor, source: museoalfaromeo.com