Villa San Giovanni to Messina ferry: Caronte & Tourist round the clock, every 40 minutes by day

About 20 minutes on the water across 3.3 nautical miles, and a ferry every 40 minutes during the day: from Villa San Giovanni between 06:00 and 21:20, from Messina between 06:00 and 22:00. Those are Caronte & Tourist's own figures for its passenger line to Rada San Francesco. The timetable that began at 00:00 on 19 October 2026 makes no difference between weekdays and holidays, with 30 departures a day from Villa and 31 from Messina.

Through the night the gaps widen: boats leave Villa at 00:00, 01:20, 02:40 and 04:00, Messina at 00:40, 02:00, 03:20 and 04:40, and both sides at 05:20. A foot passenger pays €2.50 one way or €5.00 return, while car fares are reset on the first day of each month.

Thirty sailings from Calabria and thirty-one from Sicily, every day of the year

Caronte & Tourist timetable effective from 00:00 on 19 October 2026, the same every day of the week, with no end date published. Checked 30 October 2026.   Caronte & Tourist – Timetables, Strait of Messina · 2026-10-30

€2.50 on foot, €3.00 with a bike: what about a hire car?

Walking on is cheap: €2.50 for a single and €5.00 for a return. A paper single is valid until midnight on the day it is issued, while a paper return is tied to one direction of travel and expires seven days after issue; foot tickets cannot be refunded. Bringing a bicycle costs €3.00 one way or €6.00 for a same-day return.

Car fares, which in the latest table covered up to five people in the vehicle, include a fuel surcharge that Caronte & Tourist recalculates at the start of every month. Because each table covers a single month, no car price is given here. The ticket types stay the same: single, same-day return, return within 3 days, return within 90 days, and a night fare for travel between 22:00 and 04:00, sold from 15 September to 15 July.

Caronte & Tourist foot-passenger and bicycle fares, no end date published; car fares change monthly and are not shown. Checked 30 October 2026.   Caronte & Tourist – Rates on foot, Strait of Messina · 2026-10-30

Terminal Ticketing in Villa, Rada San Francesco in Messina

With a ticket bought online, in the app or at a tobacconist you go straight to the boat: staff scan the QR code and let you keep the boarding card. If you already hold the return half, drive or walk straight to the boarding area without stopping at the ticket office.

Calabria to Sicily across 3.3 nautical miles

Villa San Giovanni lies in the metropolitan city of Reggio Calabria, on the toe of mainland Italy; Rada San Francesco faces Viale della Libertà in Messina. Caronte & Tourist gives the distance between the two berths as 3.3 nautical miles. The company's Tremestieri service, further south, is a freight line and not the one described here.

Before you join the queue for Sicily

• No booking for a set sailing

  Tickets name a date, not a departure. Advance sales are online or in the Caronte & Tourist app only; PuntoLis tobacconists sell an open ticket.

• Hire cars are welcome, drivers leave them

  Nobody may stay in a vehicle during the crossing. LPG cars are carried if the gas system is switched off and the engine runs on petrol, and the crew must be told.

• Pets go free

  Animals need registration, a vet's health certificate and the required vaccinations; dogs must wear a muzzle and be on a lead. They cannot be left in the car on the vehicle deck.

• Assistance for reduced mobility

  Free, but request it at least 48 hours ahead online, on +39 090 5737 or by email. For simple help with boarding, call the control tower on +39 0965 1719064 before you reach the quay.

• Arriving by train

  Blu Jet's fast passenger boats sell tickets in the underpass at Villa San Giovanni station and can be added to a Trenitalia or Italo rail ticket; Caronte & Tourist sails from its own berth.

• On board

  Seating is unreserved, in the lounges or out on deck, and most of the fleet has a bar for the twenty-minute trip.

Bluferries and Blu Jet: the other ways across the Strait

Caronte & Tourist is not the only operator here. Bluferries, part of the FS Logistix group, carries cars and lorries 24 hours a day between Villa San Giovanni and the ports of Messina and Tremestieri, with a ticket office on the Villa boarding area; on its ships bicycles are only accepted on the crossing to Messina's old harbour.

Foot passengers coming by train can also use Blu Jet, the fast passenger boats of the Italian state railways group, which sail from Villa San Giovanni to Messina's Luigi Rizzo quay. Those are separate services with their own timetables and fares, not covered by the tables on this page. Liberty Lines, which runs the hydrofoils from Trapani to Favignana, also publishes its own Strait of Messina timetable.

Crossing to Sicily from Villa San Giovanni: visitors' questions