Night train to Sicily

While I haven't taken the Rome to Sicily night train, I have taken night trains at least 5 times over the years. The reality is that the train may stop and start many times during the night and there will be rocking and track noise as the train travels. In your case there will also be the loading and unloading of the train as it crosses the Strait of Messina in the wee hours of the morning. Sleeper bunks tend to be somewhat narrow and not tremendously long, and I find the mattresses a bit uncomfortable. These things don't bother some people but many have trouble getting a good night's sleep. Overnight trains served me well when I was young and traveling on a tight budget, but these days I either fly or take a high-speed train instead.

Edit: I don't see a dining car mentioned for the Rome to Sicily Intercity night train, so you might need to bring along your own snacks, breakfast items and beverages.

No! Don't do it! I took that train in 2015. I was in a couchette, so the "mattress" was less comfortable than what you'd have in a sleeper, but that wasn't really the problem. I guess the issue is the tracks themselves. The rail car jerked from left to right constantly. I'm not talking about the gentle motion you get on a lot of trains; this was jerking of the sort that made it impossible for me to fall asleep at all. When I got to Catania, I fell into bed as soon as I could, and my sleep pattern was messed up for a couple of days, just like it is after an overnight flight. It was a miserable experience, and I lost an entire day of sightseeing time.

I'm sure there are flights from Rome to both Catania and Palermo. That's a far, far better way to travel to Sicily if you don't want to make stops along the way.

I'll second acraven's opinion. Don't do it. Fly instead. We tried this about 10 years ago and its not romantic or restful. And you really can't see much scenery either. It's more of an endurance exercise. And the flights are pretty inexpensive.

You can fly Alitalia from FCO to Palermo or Catania. Some of the smaller airline make the flight from the other Rome airport, so pay attention to which airport you would be departing from if you plan to connect to a Sicily flight after arriving at FCO, since its super inconvenient to travel between the 2 airports.

Alitalia flights from Rome FCO to both PMO and CTA are not expensive.

I agree with others... don't do it! We went from Taormina to Naples on an overnight train - neither of us got any sleep because of the motion of the train, stopping all the time, uncomfortable beds, etc. Felt like you were going to fall off at any moment from the top bunk. Plus, we were so tired the next day we missed our plans in Naples. Much better to fly or take a normal train and deal with the fact that you will lose sightseeing time.

To find all the flight options, use Skyscanner: https://www.skyscanner.com/. Then, look at each airline's website directly to see all the fees and rules. On these flights, baggage rules can be strict, and you don't want to be surprised at the airport with fees that would have been lower if you had prepaid them at the time of booking.

Note that while Palermo is the larger city, Catania has the larger airport. Both have lots of flights from Rome every day, on multiple carriers. They also have flights from other Italian cities, if Rome is not the most convenient starting place. if you're seeing a swathe of Sicily, it's usually easiest to fly into Palermo and out of Catania or vice versa.

If you do want to use Alitalia, note that their "International" website has the same fares as their Italian one, but has an English language option (direct link here: https://www.alitalia.com/en_en/). For these flights within Italy, their US website often has more expensive fares than their International or Italian website. It's worth checking both.

The Italian night trains do not have a reputation for being especially clean, comfortable, or romantic. (Some others in northern Europe are better.) A Naples-Palermo overnight ferry would be more comfortable, but since you're not already in Naples, flying makes the most sense to me, too.

Scythian,

Those night train blogs make me want to go now! I love train travel.

We go every year by train from London to Taormina in Sicily using the sleeper train from either Rome or Milan ,,, the kids love it ,, no waiting around in the airport , baggage allowance or any of that ,, and in the summer holidays if you book early it’s much cheaper ,,but you do need to pack some food as there is no food or snacks on the train , x