Trenitalia InterCity Notte ICN1963 #3: Villa SG to Messina on new hybrid train ferry Iginia! 4/11/22

Index points:
00:00:00 Arriving at Villa SG
00:01:23 Shunting out of Villa SG
00:03:10 Northbound IC728 being shunted off ferry
00:04:40 IC728 shunting off to Villa SG
00:06:13 Our first shunt onto the ferry Iginia
00:10:12 The ferry Iginia!
00:12:17 reversing back off after leaving coaches
00:13:18 shunting back onto Iginia
00:16:28 Unusual view from train!
00:17:02 Reversing off Iginia
00:19:49 Shunting back on to collect additional coaches
00:22:23 Shunting off Iginia for the last time
00:23:17 Train ferry Scilla
00:24:23 Messina Maratime station
00:25:43 Panorama of Messina Maratime station
00:25:59 Messina C.le
Here is a video showing one of the most unique train journeys you can take. It is from Villa S Giovanni in Italy to Messina in Sicily. What's special? There is no railway between these two stations- just water- the Straits of Messina. This is the last place in Europe where you can ride on a train ferry.
Even better, passengers stay on their trains as consist is devided up to fit on the ferry, then shunted onto the boat. The shunt is complicated, as most trains feature portions to and from Palermo and Siracusa. These split / join at Messina, but also means that the train consists and shunting is even more complicated. Shunts are carried out by diesels that often have a couple of wagons piled with sleepers as well as an old MDVE or UIC-X coach to couple up to the train. Toilets in the train are locked during the journey as the trains do not have retention toilets. Additionally, only basic lighting is on and aircon is turned off.
During the journey, passengers can leave the train, but if you are on a sleeper, the doors don't lock from the outside, so if you are on your own, you need to take all your valuables with you. Several of the train ferries are quite recent (approx ten years old) and are very smart, with comfortable seating. There is a cafe onboard open in the daytime that sells coffee, pastries and anancini (fried risotto balls with meat sauce). The cafe is very cheap (the anarancini were only 3 Euros), but only accepts cash.
The actual journey time is only 20mins, but with all the shunting (including waiting for the incoming train to be unloaded), it takes between two and three hours between arriving at one station station and leaving the next.
On the day I travelled, the new hybrid ferry Iginia was at work- details are here: www.rfi.it/content/rfi/it/new...
I travelled on Treno Notte ICN1963 (Milano C. to Siracusa) on 4/11/2002 - this arrived at Villa S G hauled by E403.006 and E402.169 (double headed) and left Messina top'n tailed by E464s.
I have uploaded a version of this video sped up x6 if 28mins of shunting is not your thing!!
This is truly one of the great railway journeys of the world!