On board the world’s most luxurious new train

Is there a station exit in the world that can match the coup de theatre of leaving Venice Santa Luca, with the Grand Canal and the Pantheon-modelled San Simeone Piccolo laid out before you? “Venice never loses that magic of appearing as if for the first time,” as British explorer Freya Stark observed.

La Dolce Vita Orient Express departs from Rome Ostiense station for a tour of Venice and Tuscany.Credit: AP

We had arrived from Rome on La Dolce Vita Orient Express, Italy’s first luxury train, intended to create the glamour and care-free spirit of the 1960s, as portrayed in Federico Fellini’s film, with its unforgettable images of Anita Ekberg cavorting in the Trevi Fountain and Marcello Mastroianni driving round the city in a Triumph TR3.

Under a full moon we boarded deeply varnished launches to breeze down the Grand Canal to Palazzo Nani Bernardo, one of the few palaces still owned by the family who built it, in this case in the 1550s.

A dark candlelit corridor from the landing stage led to glasses of champagne and a courtyard garden with Venice’s tallest palm tree. Upstairs, dinner was served at a long table festooned with white flowers, while a harpist played in the window overlooking the canal.

The itineraries on La Dolce Vita Orient Express combine the pleasures of scenic routes with quintessentially Italian off-train experiences that would be hard or impossible for a tourist to arrange.

The bar has an art deco feel with a modern twist.

The train has been created by Italian luxury brand Arsenale in partnership with Orient Express, and the pampering begins before departure from Rome Ostiense station in the palatial reception area Arsenale has fashioned out of unused spaces. There’s a modern twist to the art deco feel of the lounge areas and bar, and showers are provided for anyone coming straight from a plane or train via the complimentary transfer service.

We all thought the train looked new, but it isn’t. Instead, 1970s carriages have been completely rebuilt to the designs of a Milan studio to create 31 cabins, lounge and dining cars, and accommodation for the train’s 35 staff. Cabins are masterpieces of compression, but sumo wrestlers wouldn’t do well in the space between shower, washbasin and lavatory.

Cleverly contrived storage has been created behind one of the opposing mirrored walls, giving an illusion of greater space. Deluxe cabins have a single chair and a sofa that converts into a small double bed, but suites – larger by 60 per cent – have a fixed bed, sofa and two chairs.

An ambitious programme of eight one and two-night itineraries covering 14 Italian regions has been devised, most starting and ending in Rome and the most elaborate entailing a transfer of the train across the Straits of Messina on a privately chartered vessel to Sicily for visits to Taormina and Palermo.

Some thought two nights was the right duration, others wanted longer, but all agreed that more time at our destinations would have been welcomed, and that will be reflected in tweaks to tours.

Cabins aboard La Dolce Vita are specially designed to feel spacious.

As invariably happens on hotel trains, guests from half a dozen countries soon bonded in the lounge car, where the bar and piano were placed between an area of sinuous banquettes and seats arranged in twos and fours. The youngest in the surprisingly wide age range were a couple from South Korea, evidently on their honeymoon.

Other passengers included an investor who had been successful enough to retire early and become a professional bridge player, and a couple from Delhi in the legal profession. Most of us matched the glad rags of the pianist, saxophonist and singer entertaining us after dinner.

The near extinction of proper dining cars on so many railways has increased the pleasure of eating in one, and we began lunch to views over a glittering bay to the island of Napoleon’s first incarceration, Elba.

Our creative and high-quality six-course tasting menu with paired wines was created by Heinz Beck, who runs Rome’s only three-Michelin-star restaurant, and produced by one of his protégés, Walter Canzio.

A six-course tasting menu is served in the restaurant.Credit: AP

The train stops for four or five hours every night, and over breakfast it was evident that the world divides into those who can sleep on moving trains, and those who can’t – however comfortable the bed.

Italy had the wit to retain many of its cross-country railway lines, which often venture into its equivalent of la France profonde, so it was a pleasure to reach Siena by the single-line route from Montepescali through remote countryside.

The interiors of La Dolce Vita Express evoke the glamour of Federico Fellini’s films. Credit: AP

Between woods, an avenue of slender cypresses led to a characteristic Tuscan farmhouse with arcaded veranda on the upper level, surrounded by fields of artichokes, vines and apple orchards.

On distant hilltops, a jumble of pale brown houses rising above wooded slopes recalled a turbulent past, when villages were safer on high ground.

Another form of endemic rivalry was the subject of our visit by minibus to meet the winning jockey of last year’s Palio at his stables and training fields just outside Siena.

Remarkably self-effacing for the man who had become the city’s hero until the next Palio, Dino Pes took us through the Byzantine rules that govern the world’s oldest horse race and the highlight of the Siena calendar since 1283.

So fierce is the rivalry between the contrada, neighbourhoods traceable back to medieval guilds, that he has to be protected against malfeasance by four bodyguards from the moment he is selected until he enters the bareback race around the Campo. The three circuits took him just 75 seconds.

A bathroom on board.Credit: AP

Before lunch in the kind of unpretentious restaurant that Italy does so well, we had time to admire the jewel in the city’s glorious Gothic cathedral, the Carrara marble pulpit sculpted in the 1260s by Giovanni Pisano, with its seven narrative panels of Christ’s life and a cast of almost 400 figures.

He also sculpted the statues encrusting the lavish facade, which still looks astonishingly crisp and unweathered.

Because the train has to dovetail with passenger and freight trains or replenish water tanks, there are occasional longueurs in stations, but that is all part of slow travel.

The train never exceeds 120 km/h, and – unlike on high-speed services – this lack of velocity makes it possible to actually admire the landscapes. As we headed back to Rome, morning mist was rising over the broad plain flanking the Tavere river.

The restaurant is presided over by a protege of chef Heinz Beck.Credit: AP

A long double avenue of umbrella pines shading a farm track spoke of the forethought of past generations. We skirted the lagoons enclosed by the peninsula of Monte Argentario, where the rackety life of Caravaggio came to an end in 1610, and as we approached Ostiense station, a large section of the Roman walls still stands beside the line.

All this luxury and exclusive access comes with a steep price tag, of course: a single-night itinerary costs from $5480 per person. But strong forward bookings suggest there is healthy demand for this sort of five-star experience, and I was told some celebrities have booked the whole train.

A single-night itinerary costs from $5480 per person.

Arsenale certainly expects it to continue – a second train will be finished later this year, intended for a Rome to Istanbul journey, among others, and it is building a train for Saudi Arabia with plans for others in Egypt, UAE and Uzbekistan. The sweet life is going global, for those who can afford it.

The writer travelled as a guest of La Dolce Vita Orient Express on its Venice and Tuscany tour, which costs from €5440 ($9740) per person. One-night itineraries start at €3060 per person, departing Rome Ostiense station on multiple dates. Prices includes private transfers from other stations, an airport or a hotel, all tours, meals and drinks. See orient-express.com

The Telegraph, London