“At the station there were all of us, and I confess that among us former railwaymen there is also someone who has been touched, I fell a tear, and the people were so happy to see the train passing that at each station was a party: children running, tricolor flags waving, fireworks “. Piero Mitrione arrived at the Avellino station to take the 10.05 train to Rocchetta Sant’Antonio in Puglia. It is not a race like any other because this railway track that runs 120 kilometers, which embraces three rivers (Saturday, Calore and Ofanto) and three regions (Campania, Basilicata and Puglia), had stopped since 2010. This first journey is a historical renaissance . Because the locomotive Gr. 625, called the Miss, which connects the internal areas of the Irpinia and some municipalities in the provinces of Potenza and Foggia, boasts over 150 of history. It was 1865 when a commission formed by the writer Francesco De Sanctis fought for it to be built.
Pierino, as they call him in Avellino, has been fighting against everything and everyone for 8 years to avoid the suppression of this historical route. “I was a railwayman, and I continue to be even now that I’m retired.” I used to do it for work, now I dedicate myself to the Avellino-Rocchetta for love .. How beautiful is this Irpinia, too beautiful. enjoy a unique landscape My dream is that this train will become like a cruise ship.A Avellino-Rocchetta is my personal battle, my illness.With the association “In loco motifs” we started, and we have joined in Many young people did not know the history or even the existence of this train and now they are here, at the station with us to watch this train that has been restored for tourist reasons “.