Italy is the perfect country to be explored by train and this guide shows how to do it. Italian Railways now offer some of the most modern, reliable and cheap rail services in Europe. Tim Jepson has chosen some of the most idyllic and interesting routes for visitors to discover. Major routes will take them to the main cities and artistic centres of Italy, including Venice, Florence and Rome, while rattling branch lines travel the little-known circular routes around the volcanoes of Etna and Vesuvius, the spectacular mountain scenery of the Dolomites, the last haunt of wolves and bears in Italy's National Park at Abruzzo, and the pastoral beauty of Umbria. Coastal routes take travellers south, past the Bay of Naples and Calabria to the hot Mediterranean heel of Italy, and beyond to the slow ancient lines and turn-of-the-century stations of Sicily and Sardinia. This is the first in a series of guides that allows anyone, whether young Interaillers doing Europe or those using value-for-money rail passes, to explore Europe's countries by train. It is full of information on restaurants, hotels, bars and night-life, plus inspiring accounts of the art and architecture and the chief sites encountered en route. Tim Jepson is a writer and journalist who has lived in Rome for five years. He is the author of The Rough Guide to Canada, The Rough Guide to Tuscany and Umbria, and Umbria, the Green Heart of Italy.