Travelling on the La Dolce Vita train, the new all-Italian Orient Express
07 October 2022
3 minutes
From January, it will be possible to board luxurious historic carriages to experience a slow and eco-friendly journey, to admire the infinite beauty of Italy in a new way.
While wonders glide by outside the window, inside the train you will luxuriate in a five-star welcome with princely services and a dedicated staff. La Dolce Vita is the all-Italian Orient Express: the most fascinating of tourist trains.
A leap into the Dolce Vita era
Its iconic name, La Dolce Vita, is an explicit reference to the 1960s, the era of the economic boom, gaiety and joy. The interiors of the carriages hark back to those golden days when Italy was synonymous with pleasure.
One returns to those same moods, travelling in deluxe cabins, amidst furnishings and décor inspired by the great creative minds that have shaped the history of Italian design: Carlo Scarpa, Gio Ponti, Piero Fornasetti and Ignazio Gardella, while touches of art evoke Fontana, Bonalumi, Castellani and other masters of Italian spatialism. The dimension is vintage, but it is re-interpreted with an entirely contemporary approach, to ensure maximum comfort.
La Dolce Vita train itineraries
The project developed by the Arsenale company in close cooperation with the Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane Group consists of 5 trains each with 10 carriages, where you can spend from 1 to 3 nights in 20 suites or in the 12 deluxe cabins.
Covering 16,000 km of railway lines, 7,000 of which are not electrified, the La Dolce Vita trains pass through 14 regions and 128 cities. It is a journey through the beauty of Italy with fresh eyes, from North to South, because the slow pace of the trip allows you to take in every detail of the landscape, with your gaze settling on lakes and mountains, on tiny villages lost in every nook and cranny, on each metre of coastline offering ever-changing views, stretches of sand or imposing cliffs. Once you disembark, everything is impeccably organised, from ferries to transfers.
Ten routes have already been planned from January 2023, and these are set to increase over time. Venice, Rome, Florence, Palermo are just some of the cities of art covered by the routes. An example is the villages of the Val d'Orcia and the Tuscan Maremma with departure from, and return to, Rome. Or the Via Transiberiana and the Sassi di Matera, to experience the enchantment of the city of stone and visit Naples, Tivoli, and Altamura. The Baroque Sicily itinerary, on the other hand, departs from Palermo and heads to such treasure troves of art as Noto, Modica, and Ragusa Ibla.
On the La Dolce Vita train, dining is stellar
A trip on the La Dolce Vita train is a total immersion in the best of Made in Italy and the Italian lifestyle so admired around the world, and food and wine play a key part of the experience.
The most famous bartenders and award-winning chefs will create a course of flavours in parallel with the itinerary, offering specialities and wines from the individual places visited, in an authentic journey of taste.
Some of the itineraries, moreover, focus particularly on the food and wine aspect. This is the case of the Truffle and Wine Train: the protagonists are the prized Alba truffles and Barbaresco. Sicilia da Bere, on the other hand, leads to the discovery of the island's best wineries, including the historic ones located on the slopes of Etna.
We are only a few months away from the start of this adventure on rails that will take us around Italy, and the La Dolce Vita train already seems to be showing promise on the Italian tourist scene: all that remains is to book, and wait until January 2023.
