The Transiberiana d'Italia, by heritage train from Sulmona

Getting there

You leave from Sulmona station, two kilometres from the centre, and the motorhome stays at the municipal motorhome area, below the walls, or, if it is not a large one, in one of the car parks near the station.

• The station is in via San Rufino, north of the city, five minutes by road from the motorhome area in via Iapasseri; from the A25 motorway you leave at Pratola Peligna-Sulmona and it is about ten minutes. The train leaves from platform 1, and the operator asks you to be there twenty minutes beforehand
• Where to leave the motorhome: near the station there are two free car parks, but large motorhomes do not fit; it is worth asking by phone, on 0864 950555. The safe choice is the municipal motorhome area in via Iapasseri, described on the Sulmona page, and from there a town bus or a taxi to the station
• If you come from far away, sleep in Sulmona the night before: the operator recommends it, because the train leaves between 9:00 and 10:45
• Without the train, the same villages can be reached by the SS17 state road, which in winter requires chains on board or winter tyres from 15 November to 15 April and, in snow, is closed to vehicles over 7.5 tonnes on the Cinquemiglia plateau

Practical information

Tickets are sold only online, on the Ferrovia dei Parchi website, date by date, with a numbered seat; the winter trains sell out months in advance.

Contacts

Where it is

Sulmona, Campo di Giove, Roccaraso, Castel di Sangro · Abruzzo

You set off from

Notes

• Who runs it: the line belongs to RFI, the network operator, and the Fondazione FS runs the heritage trains on it and puts them in its calendar; the tickets are sold only by the Ferrovia dei Parchi, the Sulmona agency that organises the trips, at via Angeloni 45. No train leaves from Pescara or Rome: you start and finish in Sulmona
• The Christmas market trains, winter 2026-2027: 21, 22, 28 and 29 November, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, 13, 19, 20, 26, 27, 28, 29 and 30 December 2026, and from 2 to 6 January 2027; no trains on 24, 25 and 31 December and on 1 January. Two departures every day. At 9:30 you go first to Roccaraso, from 11:10 to 14:20, then to Campo di Giove, from 14:55 to 17:20, and you are back in Sulmona at 18:00. At 10:45 the trip runs the other way round: Campo di Giove from 11:45 to 14:55, Roccaraso from 15:35 to 17:45, Sulmona at 19:00. The operator writes that the times are approximate
• What it costs: for the Christmas market trains 60 euros for adults and 40 for children from 3 to 11, return with a numbered seat and a guide on board; lunch is not included. You can cancel in writing up to seven days before, with an 80% refund
• The Christmas Fridays at Castel di Sangro: on 27 November and on 4 and 11 December 2026 the train leaves at 12:10 and comes back at 19:00, and on 18 December there are two departures, at 9:30 and at 10:45. They include a free visit to the Christmas village, in piazzetta Patini and piazza Plebiscito, and entry to the Pinacoteca Patiniana, the gallery with the paintings of Teofilo Patini. The operator does not write the price after the September promotion, and on 18 October there were two or three seats left per train
• Outside winter: the 2027 calendar, with the snow trains of January-March and the spring trains, had not yet come out on 18 October 2026. In 2026 the snow trains went to Roccaraso with a stop at Palena and the walk at Pescocostanzo, on Easter Monday to Castel di Sangro, in summer and autumn also to Carovilli, in Molise. The dates are on the websites of the Fondazione FS and of the operator, usually a couple of months before
• On board: the Centoporte have wooden benches and doors on both sides, the Corbellini padded seats; the locomotive is diesel, because the line is not electrified, and steam is seen only on special occasions. In winter there is heating, in summer the windows open. There is no food on board: some bring a packed lunch, others book a restaurant in the village of the stop. Bicycles and pushchairs travel free in the luggage van
• The stops: at Campo di Giove, at 1,071 metres, at the foot of the Majella, the village is three hundred metres from the station; Roccaraso has its station in the village, at 1,226 metres; the station of Rivisondoli-Pescocostanzo is a kilometre and a half from Pescocostanzo, one of the Most Beautiful Villages in Italy; the station of Palena is on the plateau, at Quarto Santa Chiara, almost eight kilometres from the village; Castel di Sangro, at 802 metres, is ten minutes on foot from the centre
• The living nativity of Rivisondoli, on the evening of 5 January, is not served by any train: that day's Christmas market train stops at Roccaraso and Campo di Giove and sets off again in the late afternoon, before the nativity begins
• The train runs in any weather, unless RFI closes the line; if there is avalanche danger the train stops at Campo di Giove, with a proportional refund. The operator says it clearly: in winter it is a trip for people who love snow, and you dress in layers
• The operator's website, on 18 October 2026, had a stray paragraph in Swedish in the newsletter box, with a link to a betting site: it is not theirs, and you do not click there. The tickets are bought from the train pages anyway

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