Style in Motion

Aboard the next-gen Orient Express, Sarah Allard finds that the art and decor are as important as the itineraries and food

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Clockwise from left: Live music greets passengers at Rome's Ostiense station; Dimorestudio's geometric patterns in La Dolce Vita Orient Express's bar car; pulling into Santa Margherita Station in Liguria; the Italian countryside as seen from the dining car

IT'S A DULL, GRAY DAY in Rome, but as I step inside La Dolce Vita Orient Express's lounge, a dedicated space for passengers inside the city's Ostiense Station, the gloom lifts. The glossy yellow ceiling creates a sense of sunlight flooding the room. Murano-glass tube lights line the walls in rhythmic rows, casting a golden glow. My bags vanish into the hands of a snappily dressed porter. As I settle into one of the burnt orange sofas, a kind server hands me a cappuccino in crisp porcelain adorned with the Orient Express emblem in blue. The journey has already begun—and that's precisely the point.

The lounge is the first hint of the centrality of design to the latest venture from the French hospitality brand Accor, which has collaborated with the Italian luxury travel company Arsenale Group to revive the Orient Express, the storied train line that journeyed across Europe for 126 years before shuttering in 2009.