As a waiter pours me a glass of Fiulot Barbera red wine, grown in Italy’s Piedmont region, and hands me a plate of pasta, I put aside any irritation that the Espresso Langhe Monferrato sleeper service departed Rome an hour late. I’m in the dining carriage of a service run by Treni Turistici Italiani (TTI) – a division of Italy’s state-owned railway company, Trenitalia.

The brand launched earlier this year and operates tourist trains across the country using restored carriages from the 1960s that would have otherwise been languishing in storage. Trenitalia spent €14m to revive 17 carriages for the 50 or so services it has run so far in 2024. The project is part of an effort by the Italian government to encourage more tourists to travel by rail.