«The pleasure of wearing a tuxedo without feeling out of place»: that of Francesco Bonottotrain manager of Venice Simplon Orient Express it’s just one of the possible explanations as to why it’s so difficult to find a seat on board this rail legend. It’s hard to find a single label to explain what passing means 24 hours on the original carriages who traveled the legendary route of the Orient Express celebrated by literature and cinema.
It is not a night train or a quick way to reach one of the destinations of its itineraries, on the contrary, slowness is one of the pleasures sought after by those who choose this journey. «It rarely happens, but our customers are certainly happier when we arrive at their destination late rather than early». It could be defined as a five star hotel on the movebut you would lose the charm from the history that you can breathe between carriages and cabins.
To get closer to understanding what it feels like on this journey, a useful interpretation can be found in the dress code required to board: jeans, shorts and t-shirts are prohibited, and a dress code is required in the evening fabulous. This aspect is fundamental because i passengers I’m a fundamental element in the magic that is created on this legend itinerant: the increasingly overused label of ‘experience’ detracts, to say the least, from the atmosphere of what is one partyone showfor some even one ceremony.
The word that occurs most often among the staff is ‘bubble‘, an image that comes closest to a synthesis. And not only for that feeling of being in an aquarium when, at the stops in the small stations, curious and passers-by they crowd out the windows to take photos with their smartphones, but also for that suspension from time and from the external world that is experienced from departure to arrival.
At the platform you are greeted by the steward dedicated to your carriage, a fundamental figure who assists passengers in every detail of the journey by introducing himselficonic blue uniform to which it is difficult not to ask, as a first service, a selfie to mark the departure.
On the outside the carriages are identical, those originals from 1920inside there are two types of cabins which, in principle, also represent two types of travellers: the historic ones identical to how they were built and the new ones which propose, with additional comforts and larger spaces, the original style, including wood paneling in briar and applique by Lalique
Among the many customers who repeat the trip several times, there are those who have tried the historic cabins first and the suites later, only to return to their first choice. It’s a matter of choice: there are those who prefer the convenience of one large cabin (suites and grand suites) and those who renounce them, to replicate the spirit of journeys experienced by passengers such as Agatha Christie.
And from next year the most exclusive options will also be added to the choice: The Observatory, a cabin that will occupy the entire carriage designed byartist JR and presented to the public during the opening of the 2024 Venice Biennale.
These details, however, have relatively little impact on the time spent on the train: one of the most pleasant aspects is the slow passage of timea way to escape from the frenetic pace and savor the pleasure of a day (and a night) that passes in a completely different way from everyday life.
Enjoy dishes of one star chef with the landscape That it flowsprepare for the evening, discover the cabin transformed for the Nightdrinking cocktail among the notes of piano and the darkness of Nightfree from condensation the window as soon as you wake up: everything on the Venice Simplon Orient Express it has a particular flavour, almost dreamlike, certainly unique.
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