About this journey

The journey begins at Roma Termini and follows Italy's north-south high-speed corridor, calling at intermediate stations including Bologna Centrale and Firenze Santa Maria Novella before arriving at Milano Centrale. The train is an ETR 1000 Frecciarossa, operated by Trenitalia on this principal axis connecting Rome and Milan.

Milano Centrale, the destination, carries a layered history within its stone and steel. A competition held in 1912, won by architect Ulisse Stacchini with a project he titled 'In Motu Vita' — 'Life in Motion' — set the building's ambition. Construction resumed in 1925 and the station was officially opened on 1 July 1931, replacing an earlier terminus built in 1864 that had struggled to absorb traffic following the opening of the Simplon Tunnel in 1906. The result is a structure of considerable scale: a façade 200 metres wide, a vault reaching 72 metres, and platform canopies designed by Alberto Fava spanning 341 metres over 66,500 square metres of concourse. Beneath the main hall, the hidden Binario 21 platform served a far darker purpose — 15 deportation trains carrying 1,200 prisoners departed from it during the Second World War, a history now marked by the Memoriale della Shoah, which opened in January 2013. The cab ride moves from the ancient urban fabric of Rome to this monumental northern terminus, two cities connected by one of Italy's most travelled high-speed routes.