Intercity Notte Rome–Palermo

Europe’s last train on a ship: the sleeper is split at Villa San Giovanni and floated across the Strait of Messina before breakfast.

Sleepers have crossed to Sicily since 1899, and this is the last place in Europe where a passenger train still boards a ship. The Intercity Notte leaves Rome after dinner, runs the Tyrrhenian coast through the night, and at dawn is split into sections and shunted onto the ferry at Villa San Giovanni. Passengers can climb to the deck for the crossing of the Strait of Messina, then roll back down to their bunks for the run along Sicily’s north coast to Palermo.

Along the way

• Tyrrhenian coast by night
• Ferry loading at Villa San Giovanni
• On-deck Strait of Messina crossing
• Sicilian north coast
• Cefalù rock & cathedral
• Arrival beneath Monte Pellegrino

How this line was checked

• Line drawn from 2 OpenStreetMap relations, their own nodes end to end: relation 1779702 (213 km), relation 10071532 (222 km) — 435 km of the route between them
• Checked against OpenStreetMap: 99.7% of this line lies within 250 m of real track (median 11 m); the longest stretch away from it is 2.5 km
• Checked against the running timetable via ÖBB Scotty: our line sits 0.1 km from the shape of IC 723
• See for yourself: open this line on the map with OpenStreetMap's own railway drawn underneath it

Questions and answers

How long is the Intercity Notte Rome–Palermo?

The Intercity Notte Rome–Palermo runs 920 km from Rome to Palermo.

How long does the Intercity Notte Rome–Palermo take?

The fastest scheduled journey is 12 h 30 min for the 920 km. That is an average of 74 km/h end to end. The line's top service speed is 160 km/h.

Who runs the Intercity Notte Rome–Palermo?

Trenitalia, with Intercity Notte sleeper.

How old is the Intercity Notte Rome–Palermo?

The line has been in service since 1899. That is the year the atlas dates it from: for a modern brand running over an older railway, it is the railway's date, not the brand's.

How often does the Intercity Notte Rome–Palermo run?

Daily.

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