A Nostalgic Rail Journey through Italy Aboard Gio Ponti’s 'Arlecchino' Train

China has now announced visa-free entry for citizens of 5 countries — Cyprus, Denmark, Greece, Portugal, and Slovenia starting October 15. With this move, nationals from these countries can now visit China for up to 15 days without needing a visa.

There’s something otherworldly about traveling by train. It’s romantic, a little retro, and most definitely nostalgic. So when Belmond, the hospitality pros behind one of the world's most iconic train journeys—the Venice Simplon Orient-Express (VSOE)—decided to add a new carriage to their fleet, they had to think carefully about its story.

Oct 3, 2024 • 5 min read

Rome is one of the most established tourist destinations in the world and 2025 is set to be a bumper year for visitor numbers. 

In October 2022, I took a two-week backpacking trip through Europe, where I slept in shared train cabins and budget Airbnbs.

Sep 30, 2024 • 4 min read

Italian president Sergio Mattarella has hailed the "great relationship" between Rome and Berlin on a three-day state visit to Germany.

Aman is well known for its ultraluxury resorts and hotels found in some of the world's favorite cities, like Tokyo and Venice, Italy, as well as destinations as close as Utah and as far as Phuket, Thailand.

Summer vacations to Europe don’t have to mean sea and sand. Fresh water is equally as appealing, and the continent’s most beautiful lake regions are simply stunning year-round. Lake Como’s crystal clear water, dramatic scenery, picturesque villages, and five-star hotels — not to mention A-list celebrity visitors — have contributed to the region’s reputation for being the most romantic (and luxurious) lake in Europe. And while this is very true, Como is breathtaking, across the continent are other bodies of water that deserve attention. From the shores of Lough Corrib in Ireland, where you can stay in an ancient castle, to the limpid turquoise water of Lake Päijänne in Finland, where you can sleep overnight in a floating hotel made entirely of glass, these are the best lakes in Europe for a luxury vacation.

We’re well-practiced at carrying our driver’s licenses in the US, but it might surprise you that there are countries in Europe where it is illegal to venture out without your passport.

There are two types of train trip: The long, slow, and often luxurious train journey that takes you through beautiful scenery that you book specifically to spend time on the rails; and the speedy, no-nonsense, cheap train ride you take to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible. In the first category, you’ll find grand trips like Australia’s The Ghan, South Africa’s Blue Train, and Britain’s Caledonian Sleeper. In the second, there are trips from London to Brussels in just two hours, from Rome to Venice in four hours, and from Miami to Orlando in three hours. And if you’re a train traveler who belongs to the second category and likes getting places fast without flying, there are plenty of trains in this world that do just that at speeds previously unimaginable on land, including the fastest train in the world and its closest competitors.

For Italians, Sardinia is synonymous with “Costa Smeralda” (Emerald Coast), the summer playground of the rich and famous. But the natural and cultural attractions of the second-largest island in the Mediterranean are available to many travelers, not just the glitterati who gather on their mega-yachts at Porto Cervo every August.