Tag Archives: Ferry

Ferry To Barcelona.

Boots on Tour As Well.

Our experience accessing the ferry at Civitivecchia was similar to Naples and Palermo. There was no public  transport connection between the railway station and the ferry terminal, we shared a taxi with another passenger who persuaded the reluctant driver to take us the three or four kilometres to the terminal. We checked in,  collected our boarding passes and discovered that it was another three kilometres to the ferry, but hurrah there was a shuttle. Sure enough five minutes later a bus picked us up and took us half way to the boat. The driver pointed to another bus in the distance and told us to walk to that. There was a maze of coned lanes to follow so we picked the one that looked too narrow for cars or lorries and set off. The second bus took us along the pier beyond the ferry and dropped us by a tent which contained the luggage scanner. Once through the scanner we had to walk the length of the ferry, cross the vehicles approaching the ramp and walk onboard.

Once onboard the ferry was similar to the one we took from Naples to Palermo. We found our cabin explored the ship a bit then headed for our bunks. The crossing was smooth and we slept well. At some point during the night we passed between Corsica and Sardinia, I’m sure that would have been interesting in daylight.

Our Cabin.
Continue reading Ferry To Barcelona.

Messina

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.

Our Room
Continue reading Messina

Autumn Rail Holiday 2025

This year we are undertaking a rail based holiday to Italy and Spain.

We will start on the Cornish Riviera Sleeper to London, followed by a Eurostar trip to Paris. The rest of our stops will be Milan, Naples, Palermo, Syracuse, Messina, Rome, Barcelona, London and finally back to Penzance.

It’s not all trains as we will be travelling on two overnight ferries.

We have also pre-booked to see Leonardo’s Last Supper and The Vatican.

So if you want to follow our adventures we will start to blog on the 30th September.