It's set in the Aosta valley. The river which ran through was used as a practice center for a kayaking team. At the time, it wasn't far from winter skiing but I understand global warming has closed most of those resorts.
Northern Italian cooking (Piemontese) was amazing and we had a list of restaurants with notations of who went there (Bill Gates went here, ...).
Ivrea itself had a walking street, Via Palestra. I walked to work, getting an espresso in the morning.
No one was actually from Ivrea. It was a company town. If I wanted the Olivetti operator, I'd dial 6, IIRC. Most people didn't have phones and you'd make appointments. I made appointments to play basketball.
Many if not most people, went home on weekends, or at least often. And everyone left for August. Olivetti drew people from all over Italy. I remember one woman who definitely made it known that she was Roman, went back to Rome on weekends, and was angling somehow to get transferred back to Rome.
Lunch at Olivetti was pretty good by American rather low standards. They served wine at lunch. Then it was an ice cream while watching people play tennis on clay. Of course, Olivetti was a typewriter company and we were working in the factory. I was there for a month before I was allowed to go to lunch on my own because otherwise I'd get lost in the labyrinth.
I haven't been back in long time but but I suppose I was there at the right time.