My understanding is that this is an Intercity train which doesn't have many services, ie: no food car. That said, the timing is good: leaves about 930P and arrives at 10A but the real appeal to me is that you cross the Straights of Messina on a ferry. They actually put the train on a boat!
Does anyone have personal experience with this route/train?
I've taken night trains in Turkey and from Krakow to Budapest and both times paid for a single compartment. These trips sound romantic but aren't. You're traveling at night so you see little scenery and these trains are NOT that comfortable. The ferry transit across the Strait of Messina - which I made with a rental car - is about 20 minutes. I just looked up airfares from FCO to Palermo in mid May and Alitalia offers a numerous one hour flights at under €40. With prices like that and the additional time to visit sites, I'd definitely fly. I love train travel but this is one trip I would not take.
No recent experience on this route. On the plus side, it offers a wider range of compartment type than I expected.
Note to other readers: This direct train is not easy to find on the DB schedule site, but it's there, and simple on Trenitalia.
Listen to Philip! I have experience with that very train. I took it in 2015. I had a berth in a couchette. In my younger days I fairly often did overnight trains in a couchette, and they weren't bad. Just a padded ledge, but you were horizontal. and I got enough sleep to function the next day.
I'm older now, which I'm sure doesn't help, but the tracks south of Rome must be unusually rough. The train car jerked from side to side constantly, to the degree that it was absolutely impossible to fall asleep. It was a miserable experience, and I don't see any reason to think that a sleeper berth (assuming such are available) would do anything to mitigate the jerkiness.
Sicily is wonderful. No sense in losing your first day there to sleep-deprived zombiedom.
Been there. Done that. The train arrived very early to go across the water. All trains have to go across the Straights of Messina some way. Depending on the time of year, it may be dark when it happens.
We went from Rome to Catania on a night train. We did arrive sleep-deprived and exhausted. I'd never do it again.
If you must take a train, do it in the daytime when you can see something along the way. There are options that leave early in the morning and arrive in the evening. Some have no changes, some have 1 or 2, but the hours on the train are about the same, 11 - 11.5. The overnight train is longer. You can find them all on Trenitalia.
To see the routes, use DB Bahn. With those results you can see the exact route on a map. Some seem to go right along the water. You can also see what time you arrive in Villa San Giovanni and Messina to see when you'd be crossing the Straights of Messina.
If you aren't up for a very long journey in spite of the scenery, fly.
I have done this numerous times, on both night and day trains.
Yes, each train car is uncoupled, loaded onto a ferry, recoupled at the other end. That adds about an hour to the trip (cars and trucks unload first). It's not as thrilling as you seem to think; I prefer to fly to Sicilia from Napoli or anyplace north.
The flight from Rome to Sicily takes about one hour. To me, flying is a better option. We took the flight last year when we went on the RS Sicily tour. We flew from Rome to Palermo on Alitalia on the day before the tour started, and Catania to Rome (also Alitalia) at the end of the tour.
I haven't taken the train, but the flights from Rome to Palermo are very frequent and you have a choice of carriers; look at Skyscanner to see all the options: https://www.skyscanner.com/
Note that you do choose Alitalia, their "international" website has an English option https://www.alitalia.com/en_en/. This gives the same prices as their Italian website, which is in Italian only. Their US website has MUCH higher prices - for the exact same flights (this applies to domestic flights in Italy only).
Also note that on this route, Alitalia allows one free checked bag and has a more generous carry-on allowance than some budget carriers, so it can work out cheaper in the end. Do a dummy booking (up to the point where you put in your credit card) to see all the fees on all the suitable carriers before deciding.
I have done this numerous times, on both night and day trains. ... It's not as thrilling as you seem to think; I prefer to fly to Sicilia from Napoli or anyplace north.
So why did you take the train "numerous times"?
Why do you prefer "Napoli or anyplace north" over Rome?
Thanks, Harold. That's very helpful.
It seems clear to me - if she is going from Napoli or further north which could be Roma but just as easily Firenza or Venezia or anywhere, she prefers flying. What's the problem?
And with the number of months Zoe has spent in Italy over the years I would think she has it down by now.
So why did you take the train "numerous times"?
Because she was closer, because she wanted to, because there is always a first time for everything? Why so snarky?
indeed, she's saying that if she's in Naples or anywhere north of there, she prefers to fly to Sicily Anywhere south of Naples, she'll consider (or take) the train. Her explanation was pretty straightforward.
Thanks, all. It seems reasonable to wonder why anyone would do something over and over when it's not that comfortable.
The reason is, at the time there were no affordable (for my budget) flights from the mainland to Palermo or Catania, so the train was the only option (except for a long-distance bus, yuck! - claustrophobia). I started going to Sicilia in 1980. Plus, I don't enjoy flying that much, but it is less excruciating than the night train for this route.
And others are correct, if I am in Napoli or any place north of it, I will fly. If I am in Tropea, for example, I'll take the train. During the day.
Zoe, thanks for understanding my question and the explanation.
