The dining service promises to rival the best of modern times. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Dress the part

"In keeping with the spirit of the occasion," the brochure in my cabin reads, "you can never be overdressed on board. In the evenings, the minimum requirement for gentlemen is a jacket and tie; tuxedo/black tie is encouraged and an equivalent standard for ladies. However, such is the ambience of the train that guests may wish to dress in their most glamorous finery."

By dinnertime, the train has been climbing through the forested Alps of Austria for a few hours, and the air is now so cool that windows are clicking shut up and down the train.

I've survived the awful discovery that I packed no tie. (Riccardo has one for me.) And I'm feasting on a beautiful plate of beef tenderloin from the kitchen of head chef Christian Bodiguel, who has been whipping up amazing meals in the train's narrow galleys for the past 30 years.

There are about 10 others working in the kitchen and about the same number ministering to passengers' food and wine needs, and four more working two bars－the champagne bar in the Lalique car and the main bar, which was added after 1929 to expand the train's entertainments.

There is a steward like Riccardo dedicated to each of the 14 compartments; the other onboard staff members inlude a technician responsible for modern electronics and the period boilers that still heat the sleeping cars in winter, Janssens and the bar pianist.

"These days, train and air travel is about getting somewhere," Janssens says.

"On the Orient Express, it's about the journey itself."

Contact the writer at michaelpeters@chinadaily.com.cn

If you go

The Orient Express includes many routes and destinations－Berlin will be added in 2016－and trips can be customized with city breaks, sightseeing tours and five-star hotel stays in such locales as Paris, Istanbul and Prague.

For departures from Venice, including an overnight express run to London, make things easy by staying at the elegant Belmond Hotel Cipriani (the VSOE is run by Belmond hotels), and the concierge will arrange a private water shuttle to the train station, a 20-minute canal ride that's a charming way to say good-bye to Venice.

Log on www.belmond.com/venice-simplon-orient-express or make reservations at 0845-077-2222.

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