Milan-Sicily

[Jack in England]

Hi All

Anyone done this trip please on the sleeper looking for tips and prices do we get staff discount?

Cheers

 

[AlterEgo]

Can’t help with the staff discount but a few tips.

There’s no dining car. Eat before departure or bring food. You can get lunch on the ferry, the arancini is served hot and is excellent.

There are no showers so if you’re going all the way bring baby wipes to freshen up!

This train can run with severe delays so don’t plan anything in Sicily on the day you arrive.

 

[Jack in England]

Cheers mate just seen the vid

I've been looking and it seems to be about £150 for the 2 of us one way in the same cabin you stayed in and much like our country avoid the weekends due to engineering work, we are going to stay in Cefalu

 

[AlbertBeale]

I did Milano-Siracusa not many years back, following on a few hours after arriving from a London-Paris-Milan journey. Sleeper was fine; morning espresso excellent. I didn't mind the lack of restaurant/bistro/whatever carriage in the evening, having had a good meal in Milan in between trains, and it wasn't too early in the evening setting off from Milan. But I'd have appreciated (qualitatively and variety-wise, if not quantity-wise) having food beyond my own supplies for the morning run down the southern coast to the ferry. (I'm pretty sure there was a shower as well as a loo at the end of the carriage - though I might be mixing it up with some other overnight journey.) When I did this, the cost including a berth in a 2-berth sleeper was barely more than £100 per person from all the way from London to Syracuse, booking months ahead. But Eurostar is more expensive now; as might be Paris-Milan and the sleeper.

The whole 30+-hour experience, door to door, was overall pleasant and civilised, though - as mentioned - assume the Italian sleeper might not arrive quite on schedule! Given the lack of other train facilities, then that 1000 miles Milan-Syracuse (c 20 hours I think it was) is about the limit of what I'd want to do as a single leg of a journey! However, being able to get out onto the boat briefly, while the train was being ferried across the strait, just about broke up the last part of the journey sufficiently.

There's also the option - if you're in Milan already - of doing the journey time-shifted forward some hours, seeing some of northern Italy in daylight but sleeping through some of the south past Naples. The problem with that is that the Sicily sleepers don't start as far back as Turin/Milan so it requires a change. You either have to get an ordinary train down to Rome, and pick up a sleeper there in the evening; or get an afternoon sleeper in Milan but change for a train across to Sicily when you get to Villa S Giovanni first thing in the morning (the afternoon Milan sleeper continues south on the mainland).

 

[JB_B]

... You can get lunch on the ferry, the arancini is served hot and is excellent...

No catering at all on the train ferry when I went in mid Sep 2019 ( even the automatic machines had been turned off). Possibly we were unlucky ( or maybe catering is seasonal?)

 

[AlterEgo]

No catering at all on the train ferry when I went in mid Sep 2019 ( even the automatic machines had been turned off). Possibly we were unlucky ( or maybe catering is seasonal?)

Sounds unfortunate - perhaps a strike of some sort? But there is a small cafe on there serving some hot and cold food, this was in 2020.

 

[Watershed]

The problem with that is that the Sicily sleepers don't start as far back as Turin/Milan so it requires a change

I am booked on a sleeper from Sicily to Milan in April. I hope it runs!

 

[30907]

I am booked on a sleeper from Sicily to Milan in April. I hope it runs!

Our friend from Walford was, I think, referring to alternatives to the direct Milan-Sicily train/s - the direct trains should run.

 

[AlbertBeale]

Our friend from Walford was, I think, referring to alternatives to the direct Milan-Sicily train/s - the direct trains should run.

Yes - the Milan-Sicily through trains do exist: leaving Milan in the evening, crossing to Sicily late morning, arriving at their destinations during the afternoon; the reverse journeys depart early afternoon, cross to the mainland late afternoon, arriving in Milan during the next morning. These trains do the train-ferry crossing during the day in both directions. So if Watershed is on a service originating from Palermo at 1225 or from Siracusa at 1335, then they should indeed make it all the way to Milan!

The connections to Sicily I referred to which don't start from Milan are the ones on the other schedule - ie leaving Rome in the evening and reaching their Sicily destinations (Syracuse or Palermo) early-ish in the morning; the reverse services setting off in the evening, arriving in Rome the next morning. These trains are shunted on and off the ferry in each direction during the night.

If you want the latter schedule (ie arriving in Sicily in the morning and/or leaving in the evening) then you need a separate Milan-Rome train before or after if you're travelling to or from the north.

(There's also an intermediate - in terms of arrival and departure times in Sicily - night train option, also requiring a change [in this case in Villa San Giovanni, where the trains from Sicily arrive on the mainland]. But these night train connections at VSG do go all the way to and from Milan - and indeed Turin!)