One of the most famous Italian songs in the world is dedicated to a funicular: it's "Funiculì funiculà" of course, composed by Giuseppe Turco and Luigi Denza in 1880 to celebrate the inauguration of the Vesuvio Cable Railway, the first cable railway to successfully ascend the slopes of an active volcano.

The song became so popular it was translated in a number of different languages and performed at every court in Europe. Over one million copies of the score were sold the first year, and Richard Strauss included it in his tone poem "From Italy". The song somehow reassured people that the ambitious public transport solution could challenge nature and win... until, in 1947, nature stopped it forever with explosive, eruptive power.

Read more

Source: http://www.italianways.com/