Trenitalia: Milan ↔ Sicily from €74 per Direction Overnight in Single Compartment

For a short trip to Sicily, flying is almost unavoidable. However, for those with a bit more time, it’s worth taking a look at the night trains of the Italian railway company Trenitalia. You board in the afternoon in Milan (or Bologna, Florence, …) and by the next noon, you’re already on the largest Mediterranean island.

Even in terms of pricing, it’s quite attractive: a private single compartment in a sleeper car starts from €73.90 when occupied by one person. For two travellers, it can be booked for as little as €67.90 per person. The “room” is the same; the only difference is that an additional bed folds down from the wall. You can book directly on Trenitalia.com:

What’s best: You don’t even have to change trains. The train is loaded onto the ferry in Villa San Giovanni and, after the crossing, reaches Messina in Sicily. From there, you can continue to e.g. Palermo, Catania, or Syracuse, depending on your preference.

For those who want to have a bit more comfort, an Excelsior compartment with its bathroom and shower can be booked for a few extra euros. Alternatively, there are couchette cars, but you have to share those with strangers.

For booking, you can use the following form. This directs you straight to the booking on lefrecce.it (Trenitalia’s official website). Tickets are currently bookable until the end of March 2024. Generally, long-term bookings are somewhat cheaper:

Types of Compartments and Prices

There are three types of sleeper or couchette cars. Here’s an overview:

There are also regular 2nd class seats (from Rome) starting at €19.90 per direction or €15.90 from Naples.

Here’s a translation guide for booking on the Trenitalia site:

Translation Guide Italian – English

• Cuccetta Comfort 4 posti – Promiscuo = shared couchette car, mixed genders
• Cuccetta Comfort 4 posti – Donna = shared couchette car, only women
• Cucetta Comfort Doppla – Uso esclusivo = 2-bed couchette car, entire cabin
• Cucetta Comfort Tripla – Uso esclusivo = 3-bed couchette car, entire cabin
• Vagone Letto Deluxe Uso Singolo – Cabina Intera = single compartment in a sleeper car, the entire cabin
• Vagone Letto Deluxe – Doppla Cabina Intera = 2-bed compartment in a sleeper car, the entire cabin
• Vagone Letto Deluxe – Tripla Cabina Intera = 3-bed compartment in a sleeper car, the entire cabin
• Excelsior Uso Singolo – Cabine Intera = single compartment in a sleeper car, the entire cabin
• Excelsior Doppla – Cabine Intera = 2-bed compartment in a sleeper car, the entire cabin

Route and Ferry Crossing

There are daily (at least) two Intercity Notte (night InterCity) trains to and from Sicily. One starts in Rome, and the other starts in Milan. We’ll focus on the trains from Milan in this post.

Departure from Milan is around 8:00 PM. The train then stops in places like Bologna and Florence to pick up more passengers. You can disembark at Salerno at the earliest, or later at e.g. Lamezia Terme.

The journey gets more interesting from Villa San Giovanni at the southern tip of the Italian mainland. The cars are separated here and loaded onto their ferry. You can either stay in bed or explore the ship for a few minutes. The first destination in Sicily is Messina around 12:40 PM. The train is then reassembled into two parts in Messina: one continues to Catania up to Syracuse, and the other part goes west to Palermo. Arrival times are:

• 2:35 PM in Catania (Train part 1)
• 3:50 PM in Syracuse (Train part 1)
• 5:00 PM in Palermo (Train part 2)

On the way back, the journey starts around 1:00 PM (Palermo) or 3:00 PM (Catania), if you prefer the direct connection. You can also travel in the evening but then have to change trains in Rome (and it becomes more expensive due to the transfer).

Here’s the route from/to Milan with all stops:

By loading the map, you agree to OpenStreetMap Privacy Policy. Load Map Save selection & always load OpenStreetMaps

If you prefer to start from Rome: departure is at 8:30 PM, and Catania is reached as early as 7:40 AM. Alternatively, there’s also a daytime InterCity with a similar travel time.

My Experience in the Deluxe Compartment

I took a trip from Rome to Catania in a Deluxe compartment (single compartment) in the summer of 2021. At that time, the renovated compartments were still relatively new; by now, however, all cars should have been converted.

Especially when you have the compartment to yourself, the space (for night train standards) is quite decent. I easily stowed my suitcase under the bed and still had enough room to move around to change clothes, etc.

The bed in the sleeper car is already made, and the bed linen is reasonably comfortable. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a wink of sleep all night and could only take a 20-minute nap in the morning. Overall, the journey was by no means restful for me. However, this is not a direct criticism of the onboard product. Apparently, my body doesn’t like lying across the direction of travel, and so I can sleep better sitting up than lying down. For those who are fine with other night trains, Trenitalia should pose no problems. In Europe, there’s hardly anything better than the InterCity Notte.

During the day, the bed can be folded into a bench. Unfortunately, the table is a bit small for working, but apart from that, the seating comfort is good to very good.

The moment when the car is loaded onto the ferry is very exciting. The InterCity Notte is also the last connection (in Europe) of this kind since the train Berlin – Malmö no longer runs via the ferry from Sassnitz. The compartment can be locked from the inside, but unfortunately not from the outside. On the ferry, I took my valuables with me just to be on the safe side.

Climate

It’s currently winter in Sicily and the tickets are therefore somewhat cheaper than during the summer. From January until March, you can count on having temperatures between roughly 5 and 20 °C.

If you find it too cold in Sicily, you can also continue to Malta by ferry from there. The journey takes just under 2 hours and starts in Pozzallo at the southernmost tip of the island. Tickets start from €43 per direction.

Translated by Ditmar

Cover Picture: by Samir Kharrat on unsplash