Night had descended across the Italian countryside as La Dolce Vita Orient Express, the French travel company’s new 12-carriage, 31-cabin luxury train, sped south toward Naples. The rail liner was heading to Fasano, a small town in Puglia, where the next morning many of its passengers would disembark to play San Domenico Golf Course, a links-like routing tucked between the slopes of the Itria Valley and the Adriatic Sea.

For now, however, the train’s golf travelers had adjourned to the 36-seat dining car for a six-course meal that teased the forthcoming coastal destination with dishes like cuttlefish salad and a medley of shellfish and legumes in a spiced consommé. The dinner, curated by the three-Michelin-starred chef Heinz Beck, also reflected the journey’s Roman embarkation with a pasta course of cacio e pepe with herb foam. Later, pistachio-crusted veal gave carnivores something to sink their teeth into.

Passengers were just starting on their coffee and dessert—in this case, mandarin ice cream accented by an assemblage of ricotta in various forms—when a singer and a clarinetist entered the dining car to perform a rendition of “Die Moritat von Mackie Messer” (known more familiarly as “Mack the Knife”). The tune was a teaser for their post-dinner performance in the train’s bar car, where, joined by the resident pianist, they played timeless Italian pieces and American classics made famous by the likes of Ray Charles, Etta James, Aretha Franklin, and Duke Ellington. 

The evening, which was the first of three nights aboard La Dolce Vita, certainly got guests into the swing—or the Italian Swing, as Orient Express calls this new golf itinerary. The trip began more than 24 hours earlier, with dinner and an overnight stay at Orient Express’s La Minerva, a 93-key luxury hotel situated within a restored 17th-century palace near the Pantheon. Before boarding La Dolce Vita, the golfers played a morning round at Rome’s famous Marco Simone Golf
& Country Club.

“The train is not our product,” Marco Girotto, La Dolce Vita’s general manager, told me during that first night traveling the rails. “The train is a tool for our real product—our journeys, our adventures.”

Those adventures, he explained, are inspired by the Orient Express’s rich history, a past that can be traced to the first luxury round-trip train journey from Paris to Constantinople, in October 1883. The train’s interior aesthetic—the handiwork of Dimorestudio founders Emiliano Salci and Britt Moran—was inspired by a golden era of design in Italy. “It was the best age for Italian creativity and craftsmanship,” Girotto said of the 1960s and ’70s. “Everything had form and function.”

The form of Orient Express’s new golf itineraries is to bring travelers to some of Italy’s esteemed courses throughout the country—San Domenico in Puglia; Tuscany’s Argentario Golf Club and the Club at Castiglion del Bosco; Royal Park I Roveri in Piedmont; and Franciacorta Golf Club in Lombardy. (The last two courses together with Castiglion del Bosco and Marco Simone make up Orient Express’s second golf itinerary, Northern Greens, which also originates in Rome but whisks passengers to Italy’s northern realms.)

The function of these trips is to immerse travelers in the country’s culture; and while the train is in motion, much of that occurs in the bar car. Listening to the nightly performances—which also included a lively Italian folk songs show on the journey’s final night in Pisa—guests experienced the vitality and zest for life that defines the Italian spirit. Every night in the bar car felt like an Italian wedding celebration.

Cultural immersions also come by way of memorable sips—perhaps of a Tuscan single malt or a Sicilian pot-distilled gin. The train’s collection of Italian amaro (from sufficiently bitter and well-layered Venetian examples to bright, fruity offerings from Sicily) offers the greatest discovery potential, even for those who are well versed in the category. Then there are the bar’s signature cocktails: five libations that boast different spirit bases and include unique Italian ingredients, from Sicilian orange marmalade and porcini mushrooms to aged balsamic vinegar and extra-virgin olive oil.

Best of all, bar manager Giuseppe Carillo and his team are dedicated to the wishes and whims of the train’s passengers. So, while the formal entertainment wraps up at around midnight, the revelry in the bar car endures for as long as guests desire. Such commitment to late-night merriment often comes with a price tag, however, as wake-up calls for morning rounds are likely to come sooner than many of the train’s carousers would like.

Although Girotto insists that the journeys aren’t meant to hark back to a specific era, it’s impossible not to feel transported to a time when plush sleeper cabins, lively bar cars, and elegantly appointed dining cars represented the most luxurious means of continental travel. It’s a romantic way to tour the country, one that allows time to slow even as the world rushes by.

“Every time I’m on the train, it feels like I’m entering a parallel dimension,” Valentina Silvestri, a manager of events and special projects for Orient Express, told me over dinner on the journey’s maiden evening. “You see the world passing by, but you are in this microenvironment with your fellow passengers. It’s like there’s an underlying bond that is growing. You’re sharing something special with these people that you’ve never met before.”

Added Girotto, “One of the great things that golf and the train do—they connect people.”

If there’s a shortcoming to Orient Express’s new golf itineraries, it’s their duration. The train itself never bolts down the tracks at breakneck speed, but the journey’s three nights seem to fly. “When you step off the train at the end of the journey,” Silvestri observed, “it’s like you’re stepping from a dream back into reality.”

Reality came quickly when the train returned to Roma Ostiense station on the fourth evening—even though passengers were escorted to Orient Express’s exclusive lounge for a final aperitivo. Three nights aboard La Dolce Vita with golf clubs in tow is just that—the sweet life—though the journey is short and sweet, too. I had stepped off the train only moments before, and I was already daydreaming of a return to the rails. That’s the way it goes, I learned, after getting a taste of La Dolce Vita.