This morning, National Team Head Coach Luciano Spalletti was involved in the presentation of the ‘Trenitalia Winter Experience 2023’, which will get underway on Sunday 10 December and offer new solutions for increasingly comprehensive, efficient and sustainable mobility. Trenitalia works alongside the Azzurri, with Frecciarossa a Premium Partner of the Italian National Football Teams.

At the Milano Centrale railway station, Spalletti was joined by many champions from different disciplines that Trenitalia supports via a series of partnerships, from football (Christian Vieri) and volleyball (Lorenzo Bernardi) through to athletics (Roberto Rigali and Alessia Pavese), swimming (Simone Ruffini) and motorsports (Michele Pirro). The Azzurri Head Coach was the first sports figure to take the stage, where he stood alongside Trenitalia CEO and general manager, Luigi Corradi, and business director, Pietro Diamantini. After mentioning how the Frecciarossa is “a means of transportation that helps players avoid additional fatigue” and “allows them to travel comfortably and quickly”, Spalletti turned his attentions to Vieri, “someone who made history with the National Team”, and Barnardi, a symbol of Italvolley’s golden generation.

Then came the winter season news: there will be new connections to ski and mountain tourist destinations, as well as promotions for families and young people. As regards the results achieved this year, over half a billion people travelled with the Trenitalia Passenger Hub during the first ten months of 2023, a 20% increase compared to 2022. Furthermore, there are 24,000 train and bus connections per day domestically and 13,000 connections to the rest of Europe.

“Trenitalia and all the companies involved in the Passenger Hub are investing in the latest generation of trains and buses to ensure that passengers can travel even more comfortably and in an environmentally friendly manner,” said Luigi Corradi. “We’re committing more than €1 billion a year to regional transport and, in the next three years, the trains will be almost completely modernised. We’ve signed a contract worth around €1 billion for the provision of 40 new Frecciarossa 1000s and, drawing on PNRR (National Recovery and Resilience Plan) funds, we’re investing in new Intercity trains and coaches, with a particular focus on the southern regions. Through the Winter Experience, we’re further consolidating our efforts and, in the coming months, we’ll offer our travellers new connections for a more complete and flexible experience.”

Intermodality, sustainability and innovation are the pillars of the new Winter Experience. The 45 million passengers who have chosen to travel with Frecce have contributed to savings of €1 billion in terms of environmental and social costs. A passenger who opts to travel by train rather than plane every week between Milan and Rome reduces CO2 emissions by nine tonnes per year; meanwhile, a four-tonne reduction in CO2 would be the result of choosing train travel over driving a car. Furthermore, in 2023, the 47,000 companies that have made the choice to travel with Trenitalia have avoided emitting 100,000 tones of C02 compared to if they had chosen to use cars.

For the winter 2023/24 period, there will be even more connections to high-altitude destinations: from Friday to Sunday, it will be possible to travel with Frecciarossa to Oulx and Bardonecchia from Naples, Rome, Florence, Bologna and Milan. Also planned are two new Frecciarossa trains per day to Trento, Rovereto and Bolzano from Rome, Florence and Bologna, plus two new ones from Milan on weekends. From Milan, it will be possible to travel to Switzerland and the Christmas markets of Zurich, Bern, Basel, Montreux, Lausanne and Geneva aboard Eurocity. Furthermore, from Friday 15 December, the new ‘Espresso Cadore’ will connect Rome with Cortina d'Ampezzo at night. The MediopadanaLink shuttle service offering will also increase for travel from and to Parma, while Frecciarossa connections to major locations on the Adriatic coast, Florence, Roma, Naples and southern Italy will be guaranteed.

In Piedmont, a new direct regional connection from Turin to the Sandro Pertini Airport, the Reggia di Venaria and Valli di Lanzo, a popular tourist destination, will be active from January. In Tuscany, new intermodal connections (train + bus) will link the Poggibonsi-San Gimignano station with San Gimignano Centro. In Sicily, four new direct connections between Palermo Airport and Agrigento will become operational from Monday 11 December. Furthermore, those arriving in Italy with Emirates will be able to take advantage of integrated travel with a single ticket and a single PNR code. All flights departing or arriving from Venice, Milan, Bologna and Rome and travel options to 27 train stations with Frecce are part of the agreement.