Sicilia Express offers Sicilians living in northern Italy a low-cost way to get home for Christmas.
Italy’s Sicily region will once again offer a special rail service this Christmas with the Sicilia Express, a sleeper train that links the northern Italian city of Turin with the southern island.
The aim of the service, which was launched last December, is to give Sicilian students and workers based in the north of Italy a low-cost way to get home for Christmas, offering an alternative to flights which can be very expensive during the festive season.
The 18-hour train service, organised by Italy’s FS Treni Turistici in collaboration with the Sicilian region, will leave Turin on 20 December and return from Sicily after the Christmas holidays on 5 January 2026.
The train has more than seats and two dining cars, offering traditional Sicilian food and wine, with couchettes available. Pets will also be allowed on board.
The train will depart from Turin Porta Nuova on 20 December – with numerous stops along the way including in Milan, Parma, Bologna, Florence, Rome and Salerno – before arriving in the Sicilian city of Messina the next morning.
After the train arrives in Sicily, aboard a ship, the rail service splits into two directions: one headed to Palermo in the nnorth-west and the other to Siracusa in the south-east.
The return journey will depart from Messina on the evening of 5 January, arriving in Turin the following day.
Tickets for the Sicilia Express will go on sale soon via the FS Treni Turistici website and through Trenitalia sales channels.
