Hop aboard a historic locomotive through the Piedmont’s countryside.
There are day trips out of Palermo, Milan, andFlorencethat cost about $21.
Another trip, inSicily, stops at Pachino, the southernmost railway station in Europe.
A historic TrEno LMR train winds through Italy’s Piedmont region.Credit:Francesco Lastrucci
We were being pulled by a half-century-old diesel-electric locomotive, whose red-and-green livery paid tribute to the Italian flag.
But the four passenger cars were the real beauties.
Altogether, two thousandcentoportewere built.
From left: A centoporte train at the Canelli station; passing through rolling hills and vineyards en route to the town of Canelli.Francesco Lastrucci
And the foundation has managed to save at least thirty of them from the scrapyard.
The industrial suburbs of Turin soon gave way to green wheat fields studded with orange poppies.
Shortly before noon, after snaking through several long tunnels, we arrived at our last stop, Canelli.
Passengers enjoying a communal lunch in the courtyard of the Osteria del Meravigliati, in Canelli.Francesco Lastrucci
On thereturn trip to Turin, I could hear dogs barking and inhale the woodsmoke-scented evening breeze.
A train is part of the country.
And we all waved back.
From left: A sommelier serves spumante on the train; serving Asti Spumante to a passenger.Francesco Lastrucci
Tickets are $185 per person round-trip.
From left: Conductors on a half-century-old locomotive at Porta Nuova station in Turin, Italy; touring an “underground cathedral”, where bottles of spumante are stored, in Canelli.Francesco Lastrucci
One of the TrEno LMR train’s classic wooden carriages.Francesco Lastrucci
