[1] In August 1953, Lampo, then a stray dog, got off a cargo train at the Campiglia Marittima railway station in Italy and was adopted by the stationmaster Elvio Barlettani, despite the strict rail regulations against it.

[3] Almost every morning, he traveled by train from Campiglia Marittima to Piombino to accompany Mirna, the stationmaster's daughter, on her way to school.

After about five months, the dog returned to Campiglia Marittima, where he officially became the mascot of the railway station.

It became successful with about fifteen editions until 2009 and has been translated into English, French,[6] German,[7] Japanese[8] and Bengali.

In 1967, story of Lampo was fictionalized by the Polish writer Roman Pisarski in the short story O psie, który jeździł koleją (from Polish: About the dog that traveled by train) that has become school reading in the third grade classes of primary schools in Poland.