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For US travelers whose most upscale train experience might be the Acela or the Rocky Mountaineer, it’s hard to imagine the elegance of a leisurely ride through the European countryside on Belmond’s Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, which has just launched a new route from Paris to Amalfi.
The voyage whisks passengers through the French and Italian Rivieras, past Lyon, Cannes, Florence and Rome, to Pompeii. While some trips on this train, like Paris to Venice or Paris to Florence, take place over one night, the new route is a three-day excursion that includes two nights at the Belmond Hotel Caruso in Ravello.
After its premiere this past spring, the trip will be offered once a year, and seats for ’27 have already started booking up.
Entering the magnificently restored 1920s Art Deco cars is like stepping back in history, and that includes dressing for dinner Downton Abbey style, so you can leave those baseball caps, T-shirts and sneakers at home. The approximately 100 guests are encouraged to wear ball gowns, opera gloves and tuxedos at night, and smart-casual wear during the day.
Accommodations range from Historic Twin Cabins, where seats convert to sleeping berths at night, and there is a bathroom at the end of each carriage, to Grand Suites, with beds and their own private bathrooms, complete with showers. Apart from a restaurant that serves breakfast, lunch, dinner and tea, there’s a bar car, featuring live piano music, that is the train’s social hub and remains open until the last guest decides to leave.
The train departs the morning of April 22 and arrives in Pompeii the next afternoon. There, passengers can choose to take a tour or go directly to the Caruso. One of the area’s most spectacular properties, the hotel is a restored 11th-century palace that has just opened Adagio, a bar focused on botanical cocktails, and Il Pantaleone, a restaurant with four distinct tasting menus. Surrounded by fragrant gardens, Caruso has complimentary daily mini-cruises, and the trip includes a cooking class and a painting lesson or a boat tour of the Amalfi Coast.
The hotel’s infinity pool, which makes you feel like you are swimming into the clouds, is legendary, and yoga classes offered in that area are a Zen experience.
If formal wear is not your thing, the category you want is already sold out or if the starting rate of $12,570 is too steep, you can still enjoy a scenic train trip to Amalfi. Italo, a private train company in Italy, zips at high speed from Venice to Naples, just a ferry ride from Amalfi.
It has a first-class section where passengers are served champagne, lunch and espresso for about $150. It’s super comfy, and you pass through Florence and Rome.
There is even a first-class lounge at the station, with Wi-Fi, TV and snacks — and plenty of baseball caps.
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