In Italy, we understand it well: nothing better than the train to pay homage to the beauty and the variety of the natural landscapes which make up the country.
Through the window, mountains, forests, beaches or vast volcanic expanses parade.
Often far from asphalt roads, the rail allows a real dive into the landscape.
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Aware of this asset of the railway, a multitude of associations, travel agencies and local railway companies work together to enhance the richness of the territories, both culturally and gastronomically, with experiences that combine tastings of local products and discovery of the local artistic heritage.
Tested and approved, our three favorite experiences.
Read also Travel to Italy and Covid-19: green certificate, vaccine, PCR test ... What you need to know to go there in September
The
"T
ranssiberian of Italy
"
This tourist train runs every weekend to the highlands.
Lucie Tournebize
In a mountainous and green region, where the forest is gaining ground on the villages, the small train line leaving Sulmona for the mountain could have disappeared definitively in 2011. To save it, an association charters a tourist train, which runs every week- end towards the highlands, with the peaks of the Majella as a backdrop. It was a success: we decided to charter old wagons from the 1930s and 1950s, with wooden seats and sliding windows. In winter, it is through a thick layer of snow that the train makes its way, which earned it its nickname of "Trans-Siberian of Italy", found in 1980 by the journalist Luciano Zeppegno, while the convoy sits in the middle of a snowstorm.
Departure:
from Sulmona every Saturday and Sunday at 9 a.m. and return at the end of the day around 6 p.m.
The price:
€ 50 round trip in 1st class, € 40 in 2nd.
Possibility to travel in a
centoporte
wagon
with wooden seats or in first class aboard the Corbellini car with its velor seats.
Book
: latransiberianaditalia.com
The Hundred Valleys train
Fifty-two kilometers through stone villages and forests.
Rob lewis
From Domodossola, a large village above Lake Garda, to Locarno, in Switzerland, there may not be a hundred valleys, but two main ones, where this panoramic train rushes.
Over the rivers, through the forests, the line cuts through stone villages for fifty-two kilometers before returning to the shores of Lake Maggiore.
In the fall, the spectacle of nature in flamboyant colors is striking: the train is then nicknamed the
treno del foliage
, the
foliage
train.
Departure:
daily from Domodossola to Locarno.
Travel time: two hours.
The price:
€ 70 round trip in 1st class, € 50 in 2nd, supplement for seat reservation € 4, panoramic wagon supplement € 1.50.
Book
: vigezzinacentovalli.com/
SEE THE FILE -
Italy: the
Figaro
travel guide
The
treno natura
of Val d'Orcia
In the villages along the route, we take a break for a glass of Brunello or a bite to eat.
Lucie Tournebize
You might think you're reading the shopping list of a delicatessen, but no, that's the travel program offered by the Val d'Orcia tourist train company. Ceps, chestnuts, white truffle, oil, red wine: on every trip, the discovery of a new product and a new village, on the hills between Siena and Grossetto. Built on the model of stagecoaches, the wagons dating from 1930 are nicknamed
Centoporte
, because each square of four passengers has two side doors. In the villages along the route, we stop long enough to stretch our legs, have a drink of Brunello or a bite to eat during
sagre,
peasant fairs, real popular festivals very popular in Italy.
Departure:
from Siena, Grossetto or Florence depending on the season.
Each trip has its own schedule, always for the day.
The price:
36 € round trip.
Book
: railroadsuristiche.it/en/
The Etna wine train
From the coast, the
treno del vino
invites travelers to discover the wine route, rail version.
Pietro rizzo
Etna dominates the east coast of Sicily with its mass, culminating at more than 3000 meters.
Without reaching these inhospitable heights, a train carefully ventures onto the volcano, in a lunar setting where black stone sometimes gives way to vines or pistachio trees.
From the coast, the
treno del vino
invites travelers to discover the wine route, rail version.
We thus set off to attack the north-eastern slope, the wildest, to reach Randazzo.
In this medieval village, where the Baroque churches are built of volcanic stones, we get off the train to meet the wine merchants and taste the nectars of the volcano.
Six wines are produced here, from white to red via rosé, united under the Etna DOC appellation (controlled origin).
On the way back, the locomotive leaves the heights and turns back to regain the coastline and its odors of iodine.
Departure:
from Riposto or Piedimonte Etneo.
Every Thursday and Saturday, departure at 9 a.m. and arrival 6.15 p.m.
The price:
€ 80 round trip including shuttle service between the stations and the wine cellars, 4 glasses of wine and 2 plates for tasting the products.
Book:
stradadelvinodelletna.it
