What is the best way to travel between Naples and Palermo, and then from Palermo to Rome?

leslee,

Low cost flights will be the quickest way to travel between the points you mentioned, and will be the most efficient use of your holiday time. Check Alitalia between Naples and Palermo and Alitalia or perhaps Vueling for Palermo to Rome. This website will show the best options.....

https://www.skyscanner.ca/

Be sure to check the airline websites for luggage dimensions and weights.

• Budget flights can certainly be a good value for time and money.
• As far as traveling overnight, I slept better on the Naples-Palermo overnight ferry (with a cabin reservation) than on most night trains. Quiet, dark, and fine bed.
• If you already have a rail pass that covers these travel days, then you probably want to use it, but note that a direct Palermo-Rome train takes 11.5 hours by day or 13 hours overnight.

I found the Rome-to-Catania ride on the night train extremely jerky last year in a cuchetta berth. I don't think I managed to sleep at all. Really a pretty miserable le experience. Sitting up on a bus would almost certainly have been more comfortable.

Leslee, I traveled from Palermo to Naples on Volotea, one hour flight, no problems. Of course they fly both ways, not sure if they fly to Rome also. Fares were low, on some days extremely low, if you are lucky or have flexibility to pick one of their lowest days. The carry-on limits are very low, so I knew up front that I would need to check my carry-on bag; fee is least (15 €, as I remember), if you pay when booking the flight.

As Ken said above, look at Skyscanner for all your flight options. Remember that Alitalia includes more in its base fare than the budget carriers, like one free checked bag and a more generous carry-on allowance.

For these domestic flights, the International Alitalia website has the same fares as the Italian website, but has an English language option. The US Alitalia website will have higher fares than the International or Italian ones (again, true for these flights within Italy - not for all Alitalia flights).

And you may already know this, or it may not be relevant for you, but Catania is actually a bigger airport than Palermo, with more flight options. If you're seeing a good part of Sicily, it's easiest to fly into one and out of the other. Both get lots of flights from Rome and Naples.

There are flights from Naples to Palermo and Palermo to Rome. But you might consider adding an adventure by taking the overnight ferry from Naples, arrives Palermo around 7am. I heard about this option from Rick Steves many years ago & used it 3 times. You could buy a regular coach seat, but I splurged on a cabin accommodation, neat, comfy, with en-suite toilet & shower. Pretty good bar food available, maybe a couple of hot buffet dishes.
I used TTTLines, but not sure if they still offer this service. Otherwise, try www.tirrenia.it.