Night Ferry to Cagliari
Who travels by sea anymore to get anywhere? I'm not talking about cruises (and if I do, stab me somewhere vital when I'm not looking, it'll be a favor), but something that's still makes sense compared to flying, or even teleportation.
Well, Italy continues to be the gift that keeps on giving. I was in Sicily, and wanted to go to Sardinia. This was fortunate, because an overnight ferry will take you there in about 10 hours. While slower than a miserable airline experience connecting via another airport (I didn't see any nonstops), you get to sleep. I don't know how much they make doing it, but Tirrenia Lines will run you around Italy's islands and the mainland https://en.tirrenia.it
I took the overnight ferry from Palermo, Sicily to Cagliari, Sardinia. It left early evening. The Port of Palermo is functional with all the ferries lined up neatly, so you just walk in and look for your ship along the wharf.
My ferry was originally Greek. The ship's plan was in English and Greek, so it's just as well that Italians usually have some English language skills. Because it was low season the Armonia Disco Bar was closed.
That was ok, because there were sights to see as we departed Palermo after sunset.
The approach into Cagliari was also worth watching. Sardinia is very pretty and the old town sits nicely on an easily defendable hilltop.
You get a Pilot to help the ship get to the dock as well.
The journey was comfortable. If you're ever wondering where all the business-class seats used by PanAm in the early 1980s were, they ended up here.
For my part, I spent about 30 euro more and got a cabin. The ability to sleep horizontally and not worry about your stuff made it well worthwhile. It even had a shower, although full disclosure I didn't use it.
So I can highly recommend taking a Tirrenia ferry to get about Italy's islands. You can also get back to the mainland. I needed to get to northern Italy after Sardinia, and they had an overnight ferry to Genoa. However, since I found an Alitalia flight that got me to Milan in an hour, I took that instead. Perhaps the age of sea travel is on the way out after all.
