Greetings, I am looking for advice and suggestions on traveling by train from Naples to Taormina. I will be traveling with my husband (he speaks Italian/Sicilian) and two teenage sons. Does anyone have suggestions or past experiences to share? Prior to traveling to Sicily we will be in Rome and Capri. We are wrapping up our vacation in Taormina. Thank you.
Posted by
Washington DC Region, USA
7049 posts
Instead of taking the train, flying from Naples to Catania is preferable. Budget carriers (Easy Jet and Volotea) serve this route and it's only a 1 hour flight; a train would be between 8 and 17 hours. Google "Naples to Catania flights". From the Catania airport, you can take an easy bus to Taormina that will drop you off within 5 minutes of the town gate. A train would have to go on a ferry across the Strait of Messina to get to Sicily and it would take a long time.
Posted by
Green Bay
20147 posts
Just go to http://www.trenitalia.com/tcom-en
Put in Napoli Centrale and Taormina-Giardini. Its is a 6 3/4 hour journey with the ferry included. There is a 9:50 am departure and SuperEconomy tickets show 51.60 EUR for the entire family (teenagers are adults, my assumption) four months from now.
Posted by
Chicago
1949 posts
It'd be an adventure, that's for sure. Didn't acraven recently post about the trains in southern Italy constantly rocking to & fro, and how he'd never do it again? That experience is certainly not indicative of the smooth-riding Freccia trains in the rest of Italy or bullet trains in most of Europe, so be forewarned.
But to be honest, one of these days I'd like to try it, because I know the stories would be great. And OP, if your husband speaks Sicilian, it might even be fun. You could get beat to heck for 6+ hours and say, 'THIS is the real Italy!!'
Enjoy your planning!
Posted by
Rick Steves' Europe
16893 posts
Jay, I think you're remembering a post about the overnight train, where that motion can keep you from sleep. It's usually less of an issue by day. The morning train that Sam mentions runs direct (no connections, goes onto the ferry itself). There's also a direct afternoon departure.
Posted by
Washington DC
27156 posts
Jay and Laura have good memories! Yes, the night train was a most unpleasant, sleepless experience. I wouldn't necessarily have a problem with the day train. What's a little bumpiness during the daytime? What I haven't always mentioned in my posts about that experience, though, is that we also had a multi-hour delay at the Straits of Messina (on the Sicilian side, I believe), apparently for some sort of track work. This was way back in 2015, so I'd think surely that isn't still going on. And it might be something that only affected the night trains.