Is This the Most Glamorous Way to Travel Through Italy?

The stage is set and the cast of characters are in place. Elegant couples have flown in from France and Spain; families are celebrating milestones; and a dapper, moustached gentleman travelling solo looks every inch our very own Hercule Poirot. We’re gathered in the Italian modernist lounge, where music drifts from a piano and Bellinis flow freely from the bar. Staff in immaculate uniforms and silk neckerchiefs glide between us, completing check-ins with polished efficiency. Then comes the announcement: “Ladies and gentlemen, this is Mario, your train manager speaking. Please proceed to track eight.” The time has come to board the Orient Express.

Synonymous with glamour and adventure, and, thanks to Agatha Christie, intrigue, the Orient Express is one of the most storied journeys in the world. First launched between Paris and Istanbul in 1883, the luxury sleeper train has been reborn many times across its nearly 150 years. Each iteration has built on the reputation for luxury, indulgence and high drama, so much so that even the specific route has taken a back seat to the onboard experience. Part of Accor’s Orient Express portfolio, La Dolce Vita Orient Express launched in 2025, putting a mid-century Italian spin on the high-end sleeper-train fantasy.

My luggage is already waiting in my cabin when I board car A, and my private butler, Alexia, ushers me in from a velvet-lined hallway hung with riotous retro photographs. The 1970s Italian carriages were redesigned by Milan’s Dimorestudio with the work of Italian design greats Gio Ponti and Gae Aulenti in mind. Inside, lacquered orange ceilings, full-length mirrors, leather chairs and patterned fabrics create a wonderfully maximalist feel. As I’m in a suite, there’s a full-sized bed; Deluxe cabins have a plush pull-out sofa instead.

As I begin to unpack, the outskirts of Rome — we’ve boarded at Ostiense station — slip away, and I watch the slow segue from historic buildings to the beginnings of a parasol-dotted coastline. Families clutter small, rock-lined sands; toddlers dip toes in frothy surf. Then an announcement crackles through the in-room speaker; it’s Mario, inviting us to lunch.

Everyone knows that the dining car and the adjoining bar car — in this case, festooned with a full-sized piano, curvaceous benches and harlequin walls — are where the action happens on a sleeper train journey. So as I sit down at my table, which is draped in a perfectly pressed tablecloth, I take the time to further survey my fellow passengers.

I clock the stealth-wealth jewellery on a Scottish couple; the Russian-American duo chatting to the famous English actor a few tables down. But over my three-course meal, paired with fine Italian wines and soundtracked by jazz over the speakers, the real star is Italy, slowly unfolding beyond the window. Steely blue sea and small towns; pin-straight cypresses and brushy olive groves on rolling hills.

Soon, I’d find myself amid those hills, because aboard La Dolce Vita, the journey off the train is every bit as important as the one on it. Every journey is different: a clutch of two- and three-night routes, most looping out of Rome and back, reaching Venice, Portofino, Matera and, via the train-carrying ferry across the Strait of Messina, Sicily. I’m on the two-night Italian Wine Route itinerary, so our first stop comes that afternoon — the vineyards of Montalcino, which is home to one of Italy’s most famous red wines: brunello.

It’s not long until we’re split off into small groups (guests choose their preferred activity when booking) and a car whisks me up into the vine-laden hills to Tenuta Pian delle Vigne, an estate owned by the esteemed Antinori winemaking family. Alongside a couple of fellow passengers, I tour the family’s vineyards before settling in at their private home to taste brunello, accompanied by local cheeses and cured meats.

The winding drive back in honeyed light through vineyards leaves my eyelids heavy. But the trance is short-lived. Stepping onto the platform, where La Dolce Vita awaits, I’m buoyed by a row of bow-tied musicians playing bubbly tunes, a much-needed auditory sharpener.

It’s an anachronistic sight, this buff-polished blue train, glinting in the evening sunshine, and as I reboard, bystanders gawp momentarily, as if we’re an apparition, before scrambling for their cameras. A similar scene occurs every time we slow through a station, or park up by a platform for a few minutes. Everyday rail passengers, spotting the Orient Express gold lettering and lavish interiors, smile, point and snap in recognition.

The theatre of dinner begins in the bar car with a Negroni that, after hours of wine-tasting, I don’t strictly need but feel is essential. Then comes the elaborate multi-course feast designed by Michelin-lauded chef Heinz Beck, which opens with parsley sponge with almond and pickled radish, and beef carpaccio with cherry and brunello gel, before moving on to mezze maniche pasta with mushroom foam. Just as I’m scraping the last of the vin santo-poached peaches from my plate, the band pipes through the dining room, inviting us back into the bar, where the lights have dimmed, the volume has been turned up and a troupe of bartenders are waiting.

As the lights of somewhere-in-Tuscany blur past our windows, the merry crowd of well-dressed passengers taps tambourines and sings along to Mambo Italiano with the band. At some point during their raucous performance — aided, I’m sure, by my supplementary nightcap — the world outside the windows simply ceases to exist.

In a time when travel is dominated by minimalist interiors, low-key luxe and ‘authenticity’ (whatever that really means), La Dolce Vita is a firm rebuttal, a maximalist riot of escapism, fantasy and rich storytelling. The Italy it presents may be real or imagined, but that’s not the point. The point is the magic. 

Three More Luxury Train Journeys

Belmond Britannic Explorer

The first-ever luxury sleeper train in the UK has been worth the wait. Launched in 2025, the Britannic Explorer has just 18 sleeper cabins with elegant British botanical-inspired design, meals from star chef Simon Rogan and a ‘wellbeing carriage’ from Wildsmith. Three nights from £11,600.

The Ghan, Australia

Zooming through the inhospitable wilds of central Australia’s red-earth Outback, The Ghan journeys from Adelaide to Darwin, traversing an entire continent of landscapes. Plush cabins come in several classes, from comfortable Gold singles to Platinum doubles with panoramic views. One night from A$2,290 (£1,210).

The Rocky Mountaineer, Canada

This train, squiggling through some of western Canada’s most epic mountain scenery, is the pick if you prefer to sleep off-board. You’ll watch the panorama unfold outside the huge windows by day — or even across the ceiling in the Goldleaf cars — then get off to explore key destinations and stay in top hotels. Two-day journey from £1,379.