Slow train routes connect Slovenia, Italy

Travellers looking to take a break from mass tourism in favour of slower, more scenic journeys have a new way to explore western Slovenia and northern Italy: by slow train, peppering their ride with culture, wine and history.

Called T4T - Time for Train, the project brings together tourism organisations from Slovenia and Italy to promote sustainable travel and revive interest in historic railway lines, CE Report quotes The Slovenia Times.

It links Venice and Gorizia in Italy, and Nova Gorica, the Vipava Valley and Bohinj in Slovenia, encouraging visitors to hop between festivals, vineyards, historic towns and Alpine landscapes.

The first travel packages, available in May and June, are already available.

One itinerary, Through Layers of History, takes visitors from the popular èStoria history festival in Gorizia across the once heavily guarded border into Nova Gorica, where guides recount stories of Cold War smuggling.

The journey also includes a ride aboard a historic steam train on the Bohinj Railway, an engineering landmark completed in 1906 as part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire's strategic rail connection between Vienna and the port of Trieste.

Another package, Across Two Wine Regions, pairs the vineyards of Italy's Veneto region with Slovenia's Vipava Valley, where travellers can sample local wines, meet winemakers and attend open-air culinary events highlighting the valley's distinctive Mediterranean-influenced cuisine and indigenous grape varieties.

A third journey planned for June combines contemporary theatre performances during the Venice Biennale with excursions into the Julian Alps and a stop in Ajdovščina, where the Ad Fluvium Frigidum festival recreates a dramatic Roman battle fought in the Vipava Valley in 394 AD.

Additional summer and autumn packages are already in development, many of them tied to celebrations marking the 120th anniversary of the Bohinj Railway.

More information on the rail experiences is available here