This is a journey which ventures past the point where most rail travellers visiting Italy turn round and head back home. It gives a taste of the fiery harsh lands of Basilicata and it takes in a great sweep of the Calabrian coast.
This route starts with a train journey along the coast to Trieste, from where we zigzag up into the hills to reach the dry karst. After that we travel east to the Slovenian capital Ljubljana, then follow a scenic rail route down the Sava Valley towards the Croatian capital, Zagreb.
The Semmering Railway opened in 1854. In 1998, it was inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. The citation commends the route as “one of the greatest feats of civil engineering during the pioneering phase of railway building”. Enjoy Route 34 in Europe by Rail, which starts in Vienna and ends in Venice.
The Bernina Railway which links the Engadine area of eastern Switzerland with the Valtellina region in Lombardy is in our view far and away the finest of the three north-south rail routes connecting Switzerland with Italy. In 2008 it was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List.