Italy smashes record for tallest Lego tower

The tower, which was built at the city's Fabbrica del Vapore, was completed after a laborious five-day construction process involving more than half a million coloured bricks and 18,000 volunteer workers, including many families.

Excitement had been building all weekend before the final piece was added to the tower on Sunday. Watched closely by officials from the Guinness book of world records, the final piece was put in place by X-Factor Italy presenter Alessandro Cattelan using a cherry picker.

After the Event Mr Cattelan thanked the city of Milan for inviting him to the record attempt and tweeted a photo of the giant tower, that shows its impressive scale.

Record! 35.5 mt #torredarecord #milano grazie @LEGO_Group pic.twitter.com/WcBXdf3qUQ

— alessandro cattelan (@alecattelan) June 21, 2015

The news of the world record is another feather in the cap for Italy, which in the past month has broken the world's longest pizza record twice, as well as preparing the world's largest tiramisu. And this new record proves that there is more to Italy than food.

READ MORE: Italian city makes world's longest ever pizza

The attempt was organized by Lego and was about doing something constructive in more ways than one. The company donated almost €25,000 – or €7 for every centimetre of tower built – to a project that seeks to develop urban oases with the collaboration of the WWF.

Highlighting the significance of the project a Lego spokesperson told La Repubblica, “Each small brick was important in reaching the record, in the same way that all our daily actions are important in building a better future.”