On Saturday January 27th 2024, the new offices of the Duegi Editrice publishing house were inaugurated in the old railway station in Abano Terme, in the province of Padua, Italy.
Duegi Editrice is a leader in the field of rail transport-related publishing and model railways, founded in 1987 by Gianfranco Berto and subsequently acquired and relaunched by Fondazione FS, the company that preserves and manages the great historical heritage of the Italian railways.
The ceremony marks the start of a new role for the station in Abano as a cultural hub of national importance thanks to the work undertaken by Fondazione FS and Rete Ferroviaria Italiana, the lead company of the FS Group’s infrastructure division.
The station has been restored to its former glory: the first floor of the passenger building, which had been abandoned for decades, now houses the editorial offices of the Tutto Treno and Tutto Treno Modellismo magazines, as well as the photographic and editorial archives.
The ground floor is the location for an elegant 80-seat conference hall and adjoining shop selling railway-related books and gadgets. The opening was attended by Monsignor Liberio Andreatta, Chair of Fondazione FS; Luigi Cantamessa, General Manager of Fondazione FS Italiane and DUEGI Editrice Editor-in-Chief; Pier Paolo Olla, RFI Stations Operations Manager; Roberto Ciambetti, President of the Veneto Regional Council; Elisa De Berti, Vice-President of the Veneto Region with responsibility for public works, infrastructure, transport and legal affairs, and the Mayor of Abano Terme, Federico Barbierato.
Afterwards, Duegi Editrice’s new offices hosted the public presentation of the book “Italian Railways in the Horn of Africa” by Aldo Riccardi, in the presence of the author.
Below are the transcripts of the speeches and subtitles included in the Video Press Kit:
Monsignor Liberio Andreatta, President of Fondazione FS Italiane:
In 2021, when I was a director of Fondazione, the general manager, Luigi Cantamessa, told me about this extraordinary publishing house Duegi, which produces wonderful magazines, and about a group of workers and enthusiasts who created this wonderful gem. Cantamessa knew there was an abandoned station, overgrown by brambles, and he could already see what we see today. This is an interesting project: to recover and revive an abandoned location and make it into a service.
Pier Paolo Olla, RFI Stations Operations Manager:
Stations don’t live outside a territory, they live with the territory. That’s why bringing a station back to life is essential. This is the example offered by the completion of this project, which is an exceptional achievement.
Elisa De Berti, vice president of the Veneto Region
When I walked in here this morning, I was stunned. I did not expect to be met with a restoration of this calibre. Here is body and soul, you have truly given a soul to a place that was abandoned.
Luigi Cantamessa, General Manager Fondazione FS Italiane and DUEGI Editrice Editor-in-Chief:
This inauguration is just the first step. In the visit upstairs, we will see the old freight building, which pre-dates the station, still with the typical brickwork of the old Bologna-Padua railway. The freight building will become a railway café. With this “railway” style, people will be able to come and have a cup of tea. In the summer we will put out tables on the old loading platform so that the train speeding past will no longer be a disturbing factor but the core element, this is the great change. This is the cultural shift. Some people say we are nostalgic for the past, but in fact we are anti-nostalgic, because we are using the old from a completely new perspective.
Once the bar is finished, we want to install small fixed tracks where the goods trains once departed, and create a live steam circuit for children to ride on, like a merry-go-round. And more model kits, model trains and books on sale. Given Abano Terme’s high proportion of German tourists, where the railway really plays a central role, this is a distinguishing factor, which we want to see spreading to every station in Italy.
Hopefully, someone will bring their vision to each of the 2202 stations, and Italy will use the extension of the network, at last, to bring wealth, culture and activity back to the country
