Rail transport in Italy

The Italian Railways are the railways of Italy since the 19th century and are one of the most important infrastructure in the country, with 19,394 kilometres (12,051 mi) of track. Actually they are experiencing a rebirth with the construction of the "High speed" Italian railways system.
The first high speed train was the Italian ETR 200 that in July 1939 went from Milan to Florence at 165 km/h, with top speed of 203 km/h [1]. With this service they were able to compete with the upcoming airplanes. World War II stopped these services.

After WWII Italy started to repair the damaged railways, and complete it reaching nearly 20,000 km of extension.

Nowadays the rail tracks and infrastructure are currently managed by the Rete Ferroviaria Italiana[2] while the train and the passenger section is managed by Trenitalia, both are Ferrovie dello Stato subsidiaries. Previously Ferrovie dello Stato (FS) was just one company but due to the EU deregulation they were made into an holding company,
Minor railways are also managed by private companies, like in Sardinia and Sicily.