Beyond Venice and Florence, vintage trains in Italy take tourists to hidden gems

On Italy’s ‘Trans-Siberian Railway’, vintage trains take visitors to mountain towns far from the crowded tourist hubs of Venice and Florence

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An old train arrives at a station on Italy’s so-called Trans-Siberian Railway, which is taking tourists on “special” journeys to lesser-known towns, and helping local economies. Photo: Reuters

Published: 5:15pm, 31 Jul 2024

A vintage diesel locomotive pulling carriages from the 1930s and 1950s rolls through forests in the Majella National Park and the Abruzzo highlands, in central Italy, giving passengers a glimpse of hidden hamlets.

Over the course of just over 100km (62 miles), the so-called Italian Trans-Siberian Railway, also known as the Parks Railway, slips into gorges, snakes through 58 tunnels and traverses huge viaducts.

The route from Sulmona, 161km east of the Italian capital, Rome, to Isernia, 107km north of Naples, was the first of some 1,000km of line reopened in a project by Fondazione FS, part of Italy’s state-controlled national rail company Ferrovie dello Stato (FS).

The project, “Timeless Tracks”, takes tourists to forgotten parts of Italy, offering an alternative to the fast-paced mass tourism of its major cities.

Passengers pose for a selfie in front of a vintage train at Palena, the first stop on the so-called Italian Trans-Siberian Railway through the Abruzzo highlands in the centre of the country. Photo: Reuters

The project comes as popular European destinations including Venice have introduced measures to prevent overcrowding as tourist numbers exceed those of pre-Covid-19 pandemic levels.