Sicilia Express offers Sicilians living in northern Italy a low-cost way to get home for Christmas.

Italy will offer a special rail service this Christmas with the launch of the Sicilia Express, a sleeper train that links the northern city of Turin with the island of Sicily.

The aim of the one-off service is to give Sicilians based in the north a low-cost way to get home for Christmas with 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, will leave Turin on 21 December and return from Messina after the Christmas holidays on 5 January 2025.

The initiative came about following a request from Sicily governor Renato Schifani who said the regional government is "taking every possible action to support all those Sicilians, workers or students, who by choice or necessity live in northern Italy and wish to join their loved ones to spend the Christmas holidays together."

Schifani added that he hopes the north-south rail service can be repeated at other times of the year.

The train has 544 seats and two dining cars, offering traditional Sicilian food and wine, and will pass through many of Italy's main cities. Pets will also be allowed on board.

The train will depart from Turin Porta Nuova on 21 December at 15.05, arriving in the Sicilian city of Messina the next morning at 09.45. 

There are nine stops along the way including in Novara, Milan, Parma, Modena, Bologna, Florence, Arezzo, Rome and Salerno.

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 5 January at 18.50, arriving in Turin at 12.50 the following day.

Tickets for the Sicilia Express - starting from €29.90 one-way for a seat or €129 for a sleep compartment - go sale from 3 December via the FS Treni Turistici website and through Trenitalia sales channels.

Earlier this year FS Treni Turistici launched new tourist trains on several routes including Rome to Puglia, Milan to the French Riviera, Milan to the coast of Tuscany and Rome to Assisi and Alba.