The narrow-gauge Genoa – Casella railway, well known as the “trenino di Casella” (Casella’s train), is a historic railway that runs from the Castelletto district (the station is a few steps away from Piazza Manin, go to route 7 ) crosses Val Bisagno, Val Polcevera and reaches Valle Scrivia. It starts at the 93 meters of the Genoese station and finishes at 405 meters in the Casella station, the highest point being Canova/Crocetta at 458 meters.
Even today, together with the others trains that carry out the connection service every day, the “historic train” is still active with its 1924 locomotive, the oldest still active in Italy, two vintage carriages and the belle époque style dining car (here to book the historic train. The site is in Italian, we recommend writing an email in English to receive information).
The history of this railway connection dates back to the early twentieth century, when transport from the Valle Scrivia and from the nearby Val Trebbia to the city was still largely carried out with mules. Initially the idea was to connect both valleys. The works starts in 1921 and ended in 1929, it was no mean feat for the time and it was decided to put aside the idea of continuing towards the Trebbia valley. Since the early years, the train was used not only by the inhabitants of the Valle Scrivia and Val Polcevera villages for their travels in Genoa, but by all the Genoese for their weekend outings and immediately established the train as one of the attractions of the city. The Genoese bourgeoisie began to frequent the Polcevera and Scrivia valleys assiduously in the summer months, building villas and family houses for holidays in the small towns touched by the railway.
You must stop at Sant’Olcese, the fatherland of salami. Getting off at the Trensasco and Campi stops it is possible to connect to the paths of the Forts of Genoa (Anello dei Forti di Genova, more info here)
