We left Syracuse on Saturday morning heading for Messina, the transport hub offering train and ferry links back to the mainland. We only had one night in the town but it set us up for the morning train to Rome on Sunday.

We arrived in Messina at lunchtime and checked in to the Royal Palace Hotel which looked like a local council office block but was actually quite smart inside, it even had a bar in the lobby which proved useful for afternoon tea.

Messina was almost destroyed by an earthquake in 1908 and 80,000 people died, but it still has a cathedral and an elaborate clock tower which was added in the early C20th. We took a walk over to the piazza to have a look, it’s always nice to stretch our legs after a train journey.

Having exhausted the historic sites we found a table outside a cafe on the square. The very friendly waiter encouraged us to order something to eat with the drinks we ordered. “Have the arancini” he said, “we make them here and they are very good”. Tempted we agreed, then he said ” have two each, they are only small”. He must have seen us coming, four arancini arrived each exactly as big as the ones we had tried a few days before. That said, we forced them down and they were delicious, they were filled with a tomato sauce with mozzarella and Parmesan.

Later in the evening we tracked down a supermarket to buy provisions for our trip to Rome. It was an eight hour journey and we were aware that there were no catering facilities on board. We didn’t want to risk leaving our supply run until Sunday morning so we bought, bread, cold meat and cheese, a box of fresh pineapple and plenty of water. We were all set.

The train left Messina station at 10.15, 5 minutes later it slowed right down and maneuvered on to the ferry, another 4 carriage train that had arrived from Palermo lined up alongside and the ferry set off across the Straits of Messina. It took about half an hour which we spent in the ferry lounge watching Sicily recede and the toe of Italy loom large.

Once across, the two trains joined together and set of on the seven hour journey to Rome. As before the scenery was fantastic initially we could see a landscape shaped by volcanic activity, sharp rock escarpments and cone shaped hills. As we headed north along the coast, the hills got bigger and we could see towns and villages clinging to the peaks. I guess they were  built like that to help defend them from waves of invaders over hundreds of years.

The train sped on towards Rome. The tracks in southern Italy haven’t been upgraded to take the new, faster trains so the carriages were older style. We knew there would be no food or drink on board but we hadn’t realised there would be no WiFi either. We did however receive a complimentary moist towelette, there are some advantages to travelling 1st class!

We arrived in Rome 9 minutes late at 18.45 and headed off to find a bus.