The Treno Natura and Florence’s railway age: Tuscany by train, the back story

About The Treno Natura and Florence’s railway age: Tuscany by train, the back story

By the ULTIMATE Tuscany Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

Tuscany is a fine place to travel slowly by train. On a line closed to regular service in 1994, the Treno Natura still runs on chosen days through the clay hills of the Crete Senesi to the edge of the Val d’Orcia; and in Florence, Santa Maria Novella is a masterpiece of 1930s Italian modernism.

Florence: Santa Maria Novella

Florence’s first station on this site opened on 3 February 1848, named Maria Antonia after its railway. The station you arrive at today was built between 1932 and 1934 to the designs of the Gruppo Toscano, a group of architects that included Giovanni Michelucci: long, low and uncompromisingly modern, with a great glass roof over the concourse carried without a single column. Beside it stands the white marble Palazzina Reale, built to receive the royal family.

Some 59 million people pass through it each year. It stands at the northern end of the Direttissima, the fast line to Rome, completed in 1992, whose first section opened in 1977 and is often called the first high-speed railway in Europe.

From the open window of the Treno Natura, the bare clay hills of the Crete Senesi roll by like a sea.

The Treno Natura

South-east of Siena, a single-track branch line of about 51 kilometres runs from Asciano to Monte Antico: the first stretch opened in 1865 and the line was complete by 1872. It closed to regular passenger service in 1994, but since 1996 historic trains have run on it on chosen days of the year, hauled by steam or vintage diesel locomotives.

The Treno Natura, as it is called, leaves from Siena and winds through the pale clay hills of the Crete Senesi, past Trequanda and San Giovanni d’Asso to Torrenieri for Montalcino, on to Monte Antico. Many trips are timed to village festivals, such as the truffle fair at San Giovanni d’Asso or Montalcino’s Sagra del Tordo, with a bus or a walk into the village for lunch.

Our advice: dates and tickets are published by the Fondazione FS, and the trains can sell out, so book as soon as you can. Sit by a window, bring a hat on a warm day, and in Florence, give yourself ten minutes to look at Michelucci’s station before you hurry to the Duomo.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with The Treno Natura and Florence’s railway age: Tuscany by train, the back story before you go.