the Faentina railway

source https://ecobnb.com/blog/2018/04/faentina-railroad-train-travel-florence-faenza/

Leaving Chianti, we decided to travel not by mainline routes to Piacenza but by this railway with its history and landscape. So as to stay one night in Brisighella on the way.

There is some history of this line at Italian Wikipedia, translate that rather than hunting the skeletal English Wikipedia text. But begin here for context... the first railway line anywhere, between Liverpool and Manchester in England. England had all the resources for steel, plus coal for power. Italy lacked such resources. But in Tuscany there was a political and economic will and this line was early in contemplation, after the building first of lines in the open country around Florence. Bear in mind that rather than iconic cuteness or high artiness as pursued by many who visit this area, it was and is central to Italian industry. Later, railways would be part of the drive to unify Italy in practical terms, from 1860 and later again, a big part of post-WW2 reconstruction.

Before the engineering of railway paths north from Florence, the main route north, from ancient Roman times, was not the modern Rome-Florence-Bologna-Milan-Venice pathway but across the Appenines by easier route, the Via Flaminia, to the Adriatic. It was up there that Caesar crossed the Rubicon. Up there somewhere... Italy having been and remaining a multicultural country, with many cultures and languages. Up there was the capital of the Western World in Ravenna, for centuries from 402CE. Ravenna is one of the 'must see' items that we have not seen. We had planned to go there in early 2017CE. Some of the Faentina trains from Florence go through to Ravenna. Others terminate at Faenza, with a Trenitalia bus service to Ravenna from there.

The ride is comfortable, the trains excellent... but this direction is not the focus of business or the main line for tourists who stay with the very fast trains.

Here a few photos of our journey from Santa Maria Novella, Florence's main train station, to Brisighella. I have no pictures of the jam-packed station in Florence but down below is a movie of the quiet Brisighella station early on Saturday 29 September.














and here's the movie