Train No, 6

Last night we boarded the sleeper train from Rome to Palermo in Sicily.  The compartment was cosy but functional, and we slept very well, rocked by the movement of the train.

I was up early enough to witness the train being loaded on to the ferry at San Giovanni.  My blip shows the train deck and the extra shows the two parts of the train on board.  The train is split to go on the ferry because (a) it is too long to fit in one go, and (b) because one part of the train goes to Palermo and the other part to Syracuse.  The actual crossing is quite quick, but the total time - including splitting the train, shunting and loading at San Giovanni, plus unloading and shunting at Messina - is a couple of hours.

We arrived at Palermo around midday and spent the rest of the day walking around, also checking our arrangements for tomorrow and for our return journey.  In contrast to the last few days, we did not join any queues or visit any prominent tourist sites.  We needed a bit of recovery time.