We Rode Trenitalia Intercity Notte Excelsior Doppio From Palermo To Rome And Loved It

We rode Trenitalia Intercity Notte Excelsior Doppio from Palermo to Rome and loved it. It is by far our favorite sleeper car experience to date. There are several different types of sleeper rooms to choose from when traveling on Trenitalia Intercity Notte trains. The Excelsior is the highest level room you can get.

What Is Included With Your Excelsior Doppio Room

• Complimentary Proseco Bottle
• Toiletry Kit for each person
• Bottled Water
• Bathroom in your room
• Towels Provided
• Continental Breakfast

Trenitalia Intercity Notte Excelsior Doppio Room Tour

The Trenitalia Intercity Notte Excelsior Doppio room is one of the nicest rooms we’ve had on a train ride. The room will hold up to four passengers but we booked it for just the two of us, thus the “doppio”. The room was set up for bedtime when we boarded. One of the things I loved about this room is that there is an extra single seat you can sit in if the beds are made up but you are not ready to lay down.

The beds are each equipped with an electrical outlet as well as a reading light. There is minimal storage space under the lower bed but there is some storage space above the upper bunk if you are only using the room for two people. There is also storage under the table in front of the single seat.

The room is also equipped with a small closet behind the single seat. You simply pull the handle and the door will open and move the seat back as you open the door. You will also find the ladder to get up to the upper bunk in this closet. The room is equipped with a temperature knob as well as an attendant call button. You can also open the window should you need more air flow in your room. Keep in mind you can not put anything outside the window. Trains are constantly passing by and will cause damage to anything outside the window.

During the day, the beds fold up to create two seating areas.

Excelsior Doppio Bathroom Tour

One of the best features of the Excelsior Doppio room is the fact that each room is equipped with it’s own private bathroom with shower. You have a commode, a sink area, a small medicine cabinet and a shower stall.

The commode has a foot release to flush. The sink is a good size for a private train bathroom. The incredible part is the shower. Although if you do use the shower you should be very careful as the train moves around a lot and you don’t want to fall. The shower is equipped with metal bars to give you something to hold on to as you shower. Trenitalia provides towels for you to use as well as shower gel, shampoo and toothbrush in your complimentary toiletry kit.

What We Did

We rode the Trenitalia Intercity Notte from terminus to terminus, Palermo Centrale to Rome Termini. The Palermo Centrale station is fairly small and does not have a Freccia Lounge. We got such a great deal on our hotel ($60) that we booked an extra day so we could have someplace comfortable to wait throughout the day. Our train arrived about 20 minutes early so we were able to board early. We departed the station at 8:55pm arrived to the Roma Termini station at 9:51am.

Our 13 hour ride was very comfortable in our Excelsior Doppio room. By the end of the ride, wished we could ride for a bit longer. We paid a bit more for this room type , $426 total (not each). We found it was well worth the extra expense for the comfort of this ride.

What Is The Ferry Crossing Like

The ferry crossing is one of the things we were most looking forward to when we booked this train ride. It is very difficult to picture what this will be like if you have never had this experience before. The crossing of the Strait of Messina is in the middle of the night around midnight. When we arrived at the Messina station we stopped for a bit to let off the passengers who were stopping here. As we looked out the window we noticed the special ferry we would be loaded onto, it was a train ferry, it had train tracks for easy of loading and unloading the train.

Once the whole train is on the ferry and the door to the ferry is shut, you can get off the train and walk up to the top deck to enjoy the views of Sicily and mainland Italy. The views are beautiful, , even at night, you don’t want to miss this experience. You will also see the train cars below from your view on the upper deck. Once you get close to the other side you will go back to the train to prepare for unloading.

The train then prepares to load a few cars at a time onto the ferry. Keep in mind, you will want to go to the bathroom before this process begins as this service is turned off for loading, unloading and while it is on the ferry. But never fear, you can use the bathrooms on the ferry.

The ferry ride across the Strait of Messina takes about 35 minutes to ferry from one side to the other. Once you arrive to the other side, the train will then unload just at it loaded, in sections. The whole process of loading, ferrying across the strait and unloading takes about 2 hours.

What Is Like Inside The Ferry

We did not know what to expect from the ferry ride. We were surprised at how enjoyable the journey was. There are several places from which to enjoy the ride across the Strait of Messina. You can enjoy from the main deck area. It is dark but you can still enjoy the views of the city lights in Sicily and mainland Italy on the other side. There are also seating areas outside as well as inside. The outdoor seats are typical ferry seats but the indoor area was not at all what we were expecting.

The indoor seating area had very comfortable seats, similar to those you would find in Business class on the train. The leather seats were set up in rows except for those on the side where they were set up in groups of four, facing each other with a table in the middle. We also found the restrooms to be more than adequate to use since we could not use the train restrooms while on the ferry. They were nicer than the train bathrooms.

Is The Excelsior Doppio Room Worth It

The Excelsior Doppio room exceeded out expectations. We loved our experience in this luxurious room. It’s always nice to know you don’t have to stumble around in the hallway in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. The beds were comfortable and we enjoyed the continental breakfast we received before arriving into Rome.

We have done the Trenitalia Intercity Notte Double Deluxe room and this room far exceeded that one. There is a $200 difference in the ticket price between the two. If you plan on doing a bucket list trip, we recommend booking the Excelsior Doppio room for the experience of a lifetime.

How To Book Your Tickets For The Trenitalia Intercity Notte Excelsior Doppio Room

The best way to book Intercity Notte rooms for a Trenitalia train is on ItaliaRail. This website is designed to help English speakers easily book tickets on the Italian train system. You could also book directly with Trenitalia, but you’ll need to know some Italian, and you’ll also need to know each of the city names in Italian. For instance, on Trenitalia, Florence is called Firenze, so you’ll have trouble booking the correct cities unless you know what they are all called in Italian.

The second benefit to booking on ItaliaRail is that you credit card will work if you are purchasing from the United States or other overseas countries. If you try to book on Trenitalia, there is a good chance your card will not work and the transaction won’t go through.