The Venice Simplon-Orient-Express’s New Route to Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast

For a seasoned traveler, the true pinnacle of luxury isn’t found in speed, but in surrendering to the journey itself. The Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, A Belmond Train, has always understood this – so, as they debut their most anticipated new route yet, the VSOE turns a simple trip into the ultimate villeggiatura – that uniquely Italian concept of an elegant and unhurried escape.

Forget the stress of connecting flights to the Amalfi Coast. In 2026, the legendary midnight-blue carriages will embark on a groundbreaking, three-night journey, connecting the timeless romance of Paris directly to the sun-drenched, cliffside sanctuary of Caruso, A Belmond Hotel, Amalfi Coast, including a truly exclusive stop in the ancient city of Pompeii. This is a seamless, curated adventure that perfectly captures the artistry, heritage, and hospitality our audience seeks.

(MAUREEN M.EVANS)

From French Glamour to Italian Hills

The voyage begins the moment you step aboard in Paris, with a Champagne welcome as you settle into your beautifully restored passenger car: whether it’s a historic cabin, an elegant suite, or a lavish grand suite. This is not a simple conveyance; it is a moving masterpiece of Art Deco design, part of a broader renaissance in luxury train journeys around the world.

The train’s iconic Bar Car ‘3674’ becomes the centerpiece for evening revelry, featuring live piano music and stunning handcrafted cocktails. It’s technically a private live music performance, since the only audience each night is whoever happens to be on board that week. Dinner is an event in itself, served in opulent dining cars and featuring an exceptional menu inspired by the diverse regions you traverse, a fitting prelude to savoring Florence’s trattorias and classic dishes if your Italian journey continues into Tuscany.

After a restful sleep, imagine waking up to the gentle rocking of the train and pulling back the curtain to reveal the Italian hills, all while a “cabin service” breakfast is served.

This level of service is the spirit of the VSOE: equal parts comfort and ceaseless attention to detail to make the journey wholly memorable.

Riding the Legendary Train: Cabins, Dinner and the Details

Every cabin aboard the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express comes from a slightly different era of rail travel, and which one you book shapes the whole trip. The most accessible private cabin option is the Historic Cabin, one of eight to a carriage, done up as historic twin cabins where banquette seating folds down into berths each night and the washroom is down the hall. Book a Suite instead and you get your own marble bathroom plus a choice of double or twin bed configurations, four to a carriage. Go bigger and there are six Grand Suites on the whole train, each with its own separate sitting area apart from the sleeping quarters. It’s one of several cabin types built for travelers who’d rather not fold away the bed just to eat breakfast.

The carriages are the genuine article. They’re restored originals built between 1926 and 1949, most dating to 1929, with interiors designed by Art Deco names like René Lalique and René Prou. Modern upgrades like climate control and private plumbing in the pricier cabins have been worked in without touching the vintage bones.

The rhythm of a night aboard and a morning after follows its own logic. Champagne greets you the moment you board, and dinner that first evening is a formal dinner, four courses deep, with sommelier wines, followed by a three-course lunch and a French breakfast delivered straight to your cabin on travel days, echoing the slower pleasures of a luxury barge cruise on France’s Canal du Midi. And somewhere overnight, while you’re asleep, the train winds its way into Southern Italy, threading through the Italian countryside toward Campania. So the city you fell asleep in and the coastline you wake up to are, quite literally, two different countries by morning.

(Tyson Sadlo)

Pompeii and a Cliffside Sanctuary

The new route is a cultural deep dive. As the train travels south, guests disembark for a private, guided tour of the extraordinary ruins of Pompeii, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This is a moment of profound immersion into ancient history. For Grand Suite passengers, the experience is elevated further with exclusive access to the rarely opened Casa del Larario Regio V, an archaeological treasure that speaks to the true exclusivity of this journey.

Why Casa del Larario Still Feels Like a Discovery

Casa del Larario earns its reputation because archaeologists are still learning things from it. The lararium itself, a household shrine built into what was likely a middle-class Roman home, only came to light in 2018, uncovered during slope-stabilization work in Regio V, one of Pompeii’s still-unexcavated archaeological areas. A second round of digging in 2021 and 2022 opened up furnished rooms across two floors. Inside were painted shrine niches with idyllic garden scenes and hunting motifs, a spot set aside for the household’s protective Lares deities, and a bundle of seven wax writing tablets that somehow survived nearly 2,000 years underground. Whoever owned this house could afford a spectacular shrine even if they couldn’t afford to decorate the rest of the place. It’s a small domestic detail that captures more of the everyday side of Italian heritage than the ruins by themselves usually do.

Those with a passion for flavor can join an intimate, hands-on cooking class led by executive chef Armando Aristarco that focuses on the vibrant tastes of the Campania region, a natural fit for travelers who might also be tempted by Pismo Beach’s wine and culinary festivals.

Guests disembark at the clifftop sanctuary of Caruso, A Belmond Hotel, Amalfi Coast in Ravello. Perched 1,000 feet above the sea, the setting is pure drama and elegance. Guests are immediately welcomed to an exclusive celebration of local flavors beside the iconic, newly restyled La Piscina infinity pool. Here, overlooking a glittering Mediterranean, Chef Aristarco hosts a live demonstration featuring the finest Cilento artisans, all set against a backdrop of traditional music and regional wines, all designed to immerse travelers in the beautiful culture of the Amalfi Coast.

Then, guests choose a private boat tour to Positano tracing the coastline’s hidden coves, or opt for a painting lesson on Caruso’s terrace, offering a bespoke keepsake that captures the breathtaking view. The escape culminates in a grand dinner in the Wagner Gardens, a fitting finale to a wholly singular journey.

Paris to the Amalfi Coast: How the New Itinerary Actually Works

This Amalfi Coast itinerary is really a train trip and a road trip stitched into one, a European counterpart to Australia’s Indian Pacific luxury rail journey across the continent. There’s no rail line running along the Amalfi Coast’s cliffs, not on this route or any other, so once the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express reaches Campania, the final stretch happens by private transfer rather than by rail. The train doesn’t stop at the main Naples train station at all. It continues straight on to its own arrival point, Pompeii station, where a fleet of cars is waiting to carry guests first to the Pompeii historical site and then, along the Amalfi route, on to Belmond’s Caruso Hotel.

At Pompeii, the choice is baked right into the schedule. Tour the ruins and Casa del Larario, or skip the ruins for a hands-on, bespoke cooking class with executive chef Armando Aristarco, built around Campania’s produce. Either way, everyone’s arriving back at Caruso by evening for the two-night stay on the Amalfi Coast, which opens with a welcome celebration by La Piscina built on that same local-food idea, not unlike the food-and-wine focus of a springtime luxury Siena and Chianti itinerary in Tuscany. Live cooking stations from Cilento’s local producers are set up right beside the pool and the Mediterranean view. Grand Suite guests get one more privately guided VIP tour layered into the day, an exclusive look inside Casa del Larario that other guests don’t get. It’s an intimate experience most of Pompeii’s day-trippers never see.

From there, the two nights unfold at whatever pace guests want. Positano is reachable either by a private, scenic boat tour from the hotel or, for anyone who’d rather bring home a watercolor than a suntan, a painting lesson with a local artist on Caruso’s terrace instead. There’s a wood-fired lunch waiting back at the poolside Caruso Grill either way. By evening, though, everyone ends up in the same place, the Wagner Gardens, dressed up for one glamorous gala dinner as a send-off.

Continuing the Legacy: Iconic Italian Destinations

This May 2026 debut complements other stunning Villeggiatura by Train that underscores the dual nature of the rail journey and the gorgeous destination hotel, and sits comfortably alongside other immersive luxury journeys to Petra, Angkor Wat and Cappadocia.

The classic Venice route now invites guests to stay at the lagoon’s most glamorous retreat, Hotel Cipriani, A Belmond Hotel, Venice. Travelers heading to Florence will conclude their journey at the beautifully renovated Villa San Michele, set in the Florentine hilltops.

(Tyso Sadlo)

Completing the collection is the celebrated return of the Paris to Portofino journey, which pairs the magic of the rails with a stay at the recently renovated and storied Splendido, A Belmond Hotel, Portofino, ideal for travelers drawn to Mediterranean escapes beyond the summer season.

Portofino sits on Italy’s other famous stretch of coast entirely, the Italian rivieras of Liguria, about as different from the Amalfi Coast’s vertical drama as two Italian coastlines can get.

Hotel Cipriani and the Classic Paris to Venice Route

Giudecca Island, a five-minute boat ride from St. Mark’s Square, is where Hotel Cipriani has been Venice’s most famous address since Giuseppe Cipriani, the same restaurateur behind Harry’s Bar and the Bellini itself, opened it in 1958. It got the city’s only real swimming pool a decade later, and these days it operates as a Belmond hotel, complete with a Michelin-starred restaurant, Oro, tucked inside a 15th-century palazzo next door.

Paris to Venice is the original Villeggiatura by Train route, the first to connect the French capital with an Italian icon. It’s also the one this whole Amalfi Coast expansion is modeled after. It runs on the same rhythm, one night aboard the train and two nights at the hotel, just with different romantic cities bookending the trip. Guests on that route get their own signature detours, too, including a visit to a working glass furnace on Murano and a Bellini-making class, presumably taught by people who take the drink about as seriously as its inventor did.

Getting to Italy this slowly is the whole point of Belmond’s thesis behind this train. A place looks different when you’re not in a rush to see it, and there’s now a proper Villeggiatura by Train matched to nearly every classic Italian escape a traveler could want, from Venice’s lagoon to the Amalfi Coast’s cliffs.

It’s a chance to experience Italy’s most fabled regions in a way that only the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express can provide: a truly unhurried, luxurious cultural deep-dive where the journey itself becomes the defining memory.