Villa S. Giovanni (Villa S. Giovanni (for fast ferries to Sicily))

There are two options for taking a 'train' from Rome to Sicily.
(1) Taking the IC and ICN trains which get loaded on a train ferry, so that they continue their journeys on from Messina to Palermo and Siracusa.
(2) Taking a train to the port town of Villa San Giovanni and connecting there for a fast ferry to Messina.

The day and night trains which take the ferry call at Villa S. Giovanni, but trains heading to Reggio di Calabria also call there.
It is these trains heading to Reggio di Calabria, which all have good advertised connections, at Villa S. Giovanni into the fast ferries on to Messina.

However, as will be seen from the options below, there is a wide choice of train services which operate on the route to Reggio di Calabria.
So when looking up a trip on the booking websites factor in the journey time as well as the ticket price.
The longer the rail travel journey time, the cheaper the tickets are likely to be.

The journey times below are for the rail journey from Rome to Villa S. Giovanni, but the end-to-end journey times to Messina are also dependent on the ferry connections, which can range from 10 mins to around an hour.
So look out for the end-to-end journey times, using a combination of the train and ferry timetable (see the links below).
Paying a more expensive price to travel on a faster train, won't be such good value for money if you then have to spend 45mins or more, awaiting the departure of the ferry.