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ESPRESSO CADORE OVERNIGHT TRAIN: A TIMELESS JOURNEY FROM ROME TO CORTINA D'AMPEZZO

Click on the link https://we.tl/t-3WSGfsTBZw for a Video Press Kit of the event with statements from Italian Minister of Economy and Finance Giancarlo Giorgetti, Italian Minister of Tourism Daniela Santanchè, CEO of FS Group Luigi Ferraris, CEO of FS Treni Turistici Italiani Luigi Cantamessa

FULL STEAM AHEAD FOR TRENI TURISTICI ITALIANI

Friday December 15^th sees the maiden voyage of the Espresso Cadore overnight train, connecting Roma Termini to Cortina d’Ampezzo

On the evening of Friday December 15^th, the new Espresso Cadore overnight train to Cortina d’Ampezzo left Roma Termini station. This marked the first foray of FS Treni Turistici Italiani, a new company within the Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane Group, created with the mission of offering rail services designed specifically for high-quality, sustainable tourism, with a focus on rediscovering all the delights that Italy has to offer. The new overnight service allows passengers to travel between Rome and Cortina d’Ampezzo every weekend until February 15^th 2024, with additional services scheduled for the Christmas period. The train departs every Friday evening from Roma Termini station, arriving into Calalzo station the following morning. From here, a bus service takes passengers right into the heart of Cortina d’Ampezzo. The return train then departs on Sunday evening from Calalzo - Pieve di Cadore - Cortina station, arriving into Roma Termini on Monday morning.

The presentation of the train’s maiden voyage was attended by CEO of FS Group Luigi Ferraris as well as Italian Minister of Economy and Finance Giancarlo Giorgetti, Italian Minister of Tourism Daniela Santanchè, CEO of Trenitalia Luigi Corradi, CEO of FS Treni Turistici Italiani Luigi Cantamessa and President of FS Treni Turistici Italiani Alessandro Vannini Scatoli.

Luigi Ferraris, CEO of FS Group

For us, it marks the start of a whole new adventure with Treni Turistici Italiani. This company was established recently with the aim of allowing people to discover all the beauty our country has to offer with slow tourism - in other words, by using trains that allow us to drink in the landscape at a gentle, peaceful pace.

Luigi Cantamessa, CEO of FS Treni Turistici Italiani

This train, with all its carriages, represents the latest in fine Italian workmanship: solid, well-designed carriages that are built to last. We have completely rearranged them, as if refurbishing the interiors of a family hotel. And so the Espresso Cadore was born: a train made up of sleeper and couchette cars, a dining car, and the return of the baggage car of yesteryear, where you can stow large items such as tents, canoes, electric bikes - in fact, more or less anything. This is not merely a nostalgic indulgence: this is a train crafted around the idea of being a tourist. Tomorrow morning at 8am, we will reach the end of the line: Calalzo di Cadore, from which the railway once continued on to Cortina; however, as of 1963, the so-called ‘dead branches’ policy saw the train service to Cortina discontinued. We have attempted to recreate it by using buses which will pull into our station, pick up passengers and, in just 45 minutes, whisk them away into the centre of Cortina. A traveller stepping aboard tonight will find themselves in the Ampezzo Valley at 9am tomorrow. This is the first connection, an express train: hence the Italian name and the company colour, which is blue, just like our sea, our sky, our national team. Many thanks to the Minister of Tourism, who has always held the cause of rail tourism dear to her heart, and I believe that with everyone’s help, in ten year, the Treno Azzurro will have a firm place alongside the Frecciarossa in the collective imagination of the Italian people. The Treno Azzurro will have different features because here, for the first time, the holiday starts the moment the train pulls out of the station.

Daniela Santanché, Italian Minister of Tourism

I believe that this is an excellent opportunity and a huge leap forward for both national and international tourism, but this is only the very first Treno Azzurro so far. We are committed to increase train coverage because without travel and without transportation, tourism simply cannot have a future. So congratulations and best of luck - I will certainly be a frequent traveller on this train.

Giancarlo Giorgetti, Italian Minister of Economy and Finance

This train was created in part to be enjoyed in itself, to somehow reward travellers for choosing the slow tourism option, which unquestionably brings us back to a gentler pace, a bygone lifestyle that we sorely miss.