Italy's Trans-Siberian Railway: The Train That Crosses the Matese Mountains

There is a train that leaves Sulmona at eight in the morning and takes almost four hours to cover 128 kilometres. It is not a delay: it is its nature. Italy's Trans-Siberian Railway — so called for the harsh climate that in winter brings snow above a thousand metres — is the railway connecting Sulmona to Isernia through the most solitary stretch of the Apennines, the one nobody thinks of crossing.

A journey through time as well as space

The line was inaugurated in 1897 and served the mountain communities of Abruzzo and Molise. Today, with the vintage steam or diesel trains run by the Fondazione FS on weekends from April to December, it has become a sought-after travel experience. Departing from Sulmona — the city of confetti and of Ovid — you climb toward Roccaraso at 1,200 metres, pass through Rivisondoli and Pescocostanzo — one of Italy's most beautiful villages with its seventeenth-century arcades — and then descend toward Castel di Sangro before climbing again into Molise.

What you see from the window

The viaducts are the signature of this railway. The Rivisondoli viaduct soars more than thirty metres and frames the snowy plain like a postcard that needs no filter. Further on, between Castel di Sangro and Carpinone, the train enters the longest tunnel on the route and emerges into an almost depopulated Molisan landscape: limestone ridges, beech forests, the silence that city life has made us forget.

Stops and travel practicalities

The Fondazione FS tourist trains depart from Sulmona and make scheduled stops, often with on-board tastings of Abruzzese and Molisan products: sheep's-milk cheeses, cured meats, Sangro valley wines. The steam-train ticket ranges from 30 to 50 euros per person depending on the section and the consist. Alternatively, a handful of regular services remain — very few, at standard Trenitalia fares — for those who want a more stripped-down version. Sulmona station can be reached by train from Roma Tiburtina in about two hours. The ideal time to go is October, when the beeches turn copper and the afternoon light transforms every pass into a Flemish painting.