Colonia marina Edoardo Agnelli, Summer camp complex in Marina di Massa, Italy.

Colonia marina Edoardo Agnelli is a holiday camp in the Partaccia district of Marina di Massa, built for the children of FIAT employees. Its 52-metre tower rises 17 storeys, white with vertical ribs and rows of small rectangular windows framed in green. Two low wings with semicircular ends form its base, and a single palm stands before the lower building.

The site was designed in 1933 by engineer Vittorio Bonadè Bottino to provide free summer stays for children of FIAT employees. The project grew from the idea of offering social benefits to working-class families.

The site was built specifically for working-class children and shows the social values of early 20th-century Italy. Today you can sense how the architecture shaped the lives of families who had few chances for seaside rest.

The complex is a private summer camp for FIAT employees' children, so the grounds and beach access are not open to tourists. The tower and its two 30-metre side wings can be seen from the lungomare di Ponente and via Fortino di San Francesco in Partaccia. The 52-metre tower, with its white plaster and green window frames, is the landmark to look for along the coast.

The tower's interior is one continuous 420-metre ramp winding around a central well, originally without partitions, sleeping about 800 children. The well was once roofed with glass-cement slabs to light the dormitories; the green-painted metal railing and window frames remain, and the refectory floor holds a mosaic compass rose.