I love travelling Europe by train, but a joined-up approach is needed

Last August, I took the train from Trieste to Ljubljana, following a route once used by the Orient Express.

- María Ramírez

Along the way, I admired the Adriatic coast, discovered that Prosecco is a now abandoned railway station dating from 1857, and felt the shift in geography as the train climbed towards Villa Opicina on the Italian-Slovenian border. Crossing into Slovenia now means little more than a change of crew.

I had with me Alma, a novel by Federica Manzon set in Trieste and the former Yugoslavia that explores the region's strong and complicated connections, frozen by the cold war and rattled by the Balkan wars.

The trip to Slovenia cost about €12 ($12.50) and took just over two and a half hours. It was not high-speed rail, but a small Austrian train with a few carriages.

Still, it was joyful. That is the case for many train journeys around Europe, an increasingly popular way of rediscovering space and history in a less stressful, less polluting and more convenient way.