Tours and experiences

Ferrovia dei Parchi

3 minutes

The Sulmona - Isernia is named Ferrovia dei Parchi on account of the special nature of the places it passes through in a largely protected area. A spectacular route through the Maiella National Park and the Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park.
An excursion through the heart of Abruzzo, crossing the Apennines to admire the beauty of unspoiled villages and nature reserves, winding and scenic, through national parks, mountains and narrow gorges from the comfort of a historic train.
Opened on 18 September 1897, the Sulmona-Isernia was destroyed by the Germans during World War II. It was rebuilt and relaunched in 1955 as far as Castel di Sangro, and reached Carpinone in 1960. The line, which has never been electrified, has always been linked to steam locomotives. In the 1980s, it fell victim to the "deadwood" policy. In 1995, ticket offices were closed and several stations were downgraded to being mere stops, until the siding was removed and the direct connection from Pescara to Naples was abolished in the early years of the new century.

Nowadays, thanks to the project for the tourist redevelopment of abandoned railway lines promoted by the Fondazione FS Italiane, it has been given a new lease of life. But the Ferrovia dei Parchi is also a small masterpiece of the railway engineering of the time. In fact, despite the territory's severe morphology, it climbs gently up the mountainsides using viaducts, curves and tunnels, never exceeding gradients of more than 28%. A route classified as a tourist railway, with a length of over 128 km, 25 of which run through 58 tunnels, among more than one hundred engineering works including bridges and viaducts and more than 300 aqueducts, bridges, avalanche barriers and overpasses, as well as passing through 21 different stations.
A route that, from Sulmona, reaches the second-highest railway station, over 1,200 metres above sea level, in Rivisondoli-Pescocostanzo, and then travels down to about 800 in Castel di Sangro, up to San Pietro Avellana and Carovilli in Upper Molise and once again down to Isernia. A unique experience that has earned it the nickname of the Ferrovia dei Parchi and that alone is worth the journey. A true visual experience, almost a kind of living documentary with images flowing through the train windows.

Several names have been given to the railway: from the Transiberian Railway of Italy to the Little Trans-Siberian Railway because of the white, frozen landscapes that the railway offers in winter on the High Plateaus of Abruzzo. Today, the Ferrovia dei Parchi is a sure winner for slow tourism in the inland areas of Abruzzo. In fact in 2023, more than 36,000 tickets were sold for the historic train. It was a record-breaking tourist season that far surpassed the figures of the pre-covid seasons, such as 2019, when the small trans-Siberian Apennine railway recorded over 31,000 visitors. While in the current year, it has already welcomed over 7,000 people on the snow trains.

Finally, as recalled by the Fondazione Fs Italiane, snow trains are used "a historic train specially rented and reserved for the travel agency organising it, consisting of the locomotive D445 "Bombardone", intended for pulling centoporte carriages dating back to the late 1920s and characterised by their wooden interiors, and the special luggage carriage for transporting pushchairs, bobsleighs and sledges, snowshoes, skis, bicycles and bulky luggage free of charge".
The route is weekly and on holidays, with same-day departure and return from Sulmona. Departure calendar, timetables and offers can be found on the Ferrovia dei Parchi official website.