Well provided with cigars and other necessaries of life, we are now ready to take the cars for Milan. All day long we sped through a mountainous country whose peaks were bright with sunshine, whose hillsides were dotted with pretty villas sitting in the midst of gardens and shrubbery, and whose deep ravines were cool and shady and looked ever so inviting from where we and the birds were winging our flight through the sultry upper air. We had plenty of chilly tunnels wherein to check our perspiration, though. We timed one of them. We were twenty minutes passing through it, going at the rate of thirty to thirty-five miles an hour. Beyond Alessandria we passed the battle-field of Marengo. Toward dusk we drew near Milan and caught glimpses of the city and the blue mountain peaks beyond. But we were not caring for these things—they did not interest us in the least. We were in a fever of impatience; we were dying to see the renowned cathedral! We watched—in this direction and that—all around—everywhere. We needed no one to point it out—we did not wish any one to point it out—we would recognize it even in the desert of the great Sahara. (Innocents Abroad) 26 .
From Milan to Genoa by Pavia . from Bædeker
The Genoa–Milan railway is a major Italian rail line, connecting the cities of Genoa and Milan. It is 157km (98 mi) long and fully electrified at 3,000 V DC. Passenger traffic is managed by Trenitalia.
Unlike the Turin-Genoa line, the Milan-Genoa line was not built as a single project. Instead it developed from the joining of different lines by a shortcut. The first part of the line from Milan to Genoa is the section from Milano Rogoredo to Pavia, which was opened on 10 May 1862 as a branch off the line from Milano Centrale to Piacenza, opened on 14 November 1861. Earlier, on 25 January 1858, the Alessandria-Tortona-Voghera-Casteggio line opened to the public along with the connection between Tortona and Novi Ligure, providing good connections to the by now completed Turin-Genoa line. On 14 November 1867 the opening to traffic of the rail link from Pavia to Voghera completed the link between Milan and Genoa.
The section between Genoa and Novi Ligure over the Giovi Pass used by both the Turin-Genoa and the Milan-Genoa lines, however, was extremely difficult and therefore a new link between Arquata Scrivia and Tortona was built which was opened on 1 October 1916, completing the current form of the line, except for improvements made in Genoa and the deviation opened in 2007 between Milan Rogoredo and Locate Triulzi replacing the 1862 route.