La Dolce Vita Orient Express trains are due to debut in April 2025, departing the Roma Ostiense railway station.
La Dolce Vita Orient Express train will make its debut in April 2025
Some 80% of the Dolce Vita trains will depart from the Rome Ostiense railway station, with the most varied itineraries: from the coast-to-coast Venice and Portofino, to Bella Italia, Venice and Siena, the Italian Trans-Siberian Railway, Matera and Palena (Chieti), the wine and truffle itinerary in Monferrato, the South Italy of Maratea and Palermo, as well as tours to discover the Tyrrhenian coast, the Wonders of Sicily and the Mediterranean with the Palermo-Rome. The Dolce Vita Orient Express train will make its debut in April 2025, and is owned by the Arsenale company, in collaboration with the Accor Group's hospitality brand and FS, the Italian state railways group.
La Dolce Vita embodies the Italian lifestyle of the 1960s
The fleet of six trains, each consisting of 12 carriages, is currently being built in CPL's workshops in Brindisi and Palermo. The first two Orient Express trains, inspired by the Dolce Vita embodying the Italian lifestyle of the 1960s, will be completed by the end of this year, reports the Italian daily Il Sole 24 Ore, while the other four trains will follow in 2025 and 2026, for a total investment of some €240 million.
Some 47% of pre-bookings come from the USA
Bookings will be open worldwide starting next April, but pre-sales started last 2 December, and in these first months of marketing 47% of bookings were made by Americans, 17% by Australians, and the remainder by European and Middle Eastern travellers. Prices start from €3,500 per night per person, going up to €4,700. When fully operational, the plan is to operate 600 trips per year in Italy, on dedicated routes of from one to three nights, with a maximum capacity of 62 passengers per train.
La Dolce Vita trains are planned for Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Uzbekistan and Egypt
Arsenale has already signed a series of agreements abroad to replicate the initiative in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Uzbekistan and Egypt. Arsenale is controlled by the Barletta family (71.91%) and is also owned by the American fund Oaktree (16.11%) and Nicola Bulgari's Annabel Holding (11.98%). In February 2022 the company signed an agreement with the Oaktree for €300 million to develop the Orient Express Dolce Vita train project.
