Bologna–Florence railway

The Bologna–Florence railway is one of the major links in the Italian rail network, connecting the railways of the Po Valley with the railways of Tuscany and central Italy under the Apennines. It is also known as the Bologna–Florence direttissima—"direttissima" is Italian for "most direct". It was Italy's greatest engineering achievement in the first half of the twentieth century. When it opened in 1934 it significantly shortened the old winding Porrettana line over the Apennines via Pistoia, and was made possible by the 18.507 km-long Apennine Base Tunnel. The new Bologna–Florence high-speed railway was opened on 5 December 2009; it includes 73.8 km of tunnels in its 78.5 km length.