Once upon a time there was the railway, a means of transport that changed people’s lives, their habits and their whole world. But where there was once a railway that no longer exists – put out of business by automobiles or high- speed trains – we are left with old lines that have become part of our history and our cultural heritage, and are often uncontaminated areas that take us back in time, whether it be on foot or on a bicycle. The author Ornella d’Alessio, who is a tireless traveller, has chosen twenty old railways to be discovered, and never again forgotten.