About this journey

Verona Porta Nuova station, opened in 1852 by the Austrian Empire's Südbahn, stands at one of northern Italy's most significant rail crossings, where the east–west Milan–Venice railway meets the north–south Brenner Railway. That north–south corridor has since been designated part of the EU's Trans-European Network Berlin–Palermo Railway Axis, and electrification of the lines here was completed in 1941. The rebuilt station that appears on departure dates from the postwar period between 1946 and 1949, following severe bomb damage in January 1945; its interior is clad in Veronese marble across some 4,000 m² of surface, with floors of ceramic-tile mosaics.

The Milan–Venice railway runs east from Verona toward the Venetian lagoon, ending at Venice Santa Lucia station — the 267-kilometre mark of the line. Santa Lucia occupies a singular position: it sits on Venice's northern island, reachable by rail only across the Ponte della Libertà. To build the station and its forecourt, a convent and the Church of Santa Lucia were demolished in 1861, and the station took the church's name in return. The current modernist building emerged from plans begun by architect Angiolo Mazzoni in 1924 and was completed in 1952. By 1994, a former goods yard had been redeveloped to add 8 platforms, bringing the total to 23 — a terminus that grew to meet a city roads could not reach until 1933.