Exceptional Opening on Saturday the 19th and Sunday the 20th of March

Rome, 9 March 2016

An exceptional opening on Saturday the 19th and Sunday the 20th of March 2016, at the XXIV edition of the FAI di Primavera, the former workshop and Locomotive Depot of the Ferrovie dello Stato (State Railways) of La Spezia Migliarina, in Liguria.

The event, organized by the Fondazione FS Italiane in co-operation with the FAI - Fondo Ambiente Italiano (Italian Environment Fund), the Liguria Region and the Municipality of La Spezia, a unique opportunity to "reach out and touch" one of the most characteristic Italian sites of industrial archaeology, in the railway sector.

The initiative was presented in Rome this morning during a joint MIBACT-FAI press conference which was attended by Minister Franceschini.

The former workshop of La Spezia Migliarina is part of the network of 11 sites, identified by the Fondazione FS Italiane throughout the country, which restores and protects hundreds of historic trains from deterioration, which can testify to the technological excellence achieved by the State Railway in one hundred years of experience, representing the method of travel for generations of Italians.

The exceptional opening to the public will cover storage deposits for trains to electric traction, consisting of six tracks, and one for the Diesel Traction, consisting instead of two tracks.

In the two buildings and surrounding squares, visitors will have the possibility to admire a vast number of locomotives, electromotive railcars and railway cars belonging to the FS, showing the evolution of railway transport since the earliest days to the present..

To the delight of small children, these trains will make a fine showing, sleek, even the legendary steam locomotive 940.041, powered on and "puffing up a storm" for the entire duration of the event.

Return trips are also expected, Saturday the 19th and Sunday the 20th of March, from Milano Centrale (Milan Central), Pavia, Voghera, Genova (Genoa) and other Ligurian stations headed for La Spezia Migliarina, aboard vintage carriages of the 60s and the 70s, pulled by locomotive E 646.

Tickets can be purchased through Trenitalia sales channels (ticket offices and online via www.trenitalia.it).