Harbour of Villa San Giovanni, Ferry terminal in Villa San Giovanni, Italy

The Harbour of Villa San Giovanni is an artificial port on the Strait of Messina, the largest terminal in Calabria for ferrying road vehicles and railway wagons. A straight outer breakwater shelters four slipways at its root: three for rail traffic and one beside the station for road vehicles. The quay runs almost to Cannitello, with road lanes for private car ferries. Seabeds are sandy, 3.5 to 5 m deep.

The strait crossing received official approval for steam navigation in the 1890s, followed by the construction of railway docks in the early 1900s. This development transformed the port into a crucial transportation hub between northern and southern Italy.

The crossing point has been used since prehistory, when peoples migrating from the mainland to Sicily embarked at the coast nearest the island. Since 1905 the railway ferry ramps at Villa have taken traffic that once passed through Reggio Calabria, because the Tyrrhenian route is shorter than the Ionian one. The waterfront is still organised around that rail traffic.

The port is artificial, sheltered by a straight outer breakwater whose root holds the railway slipways: three for trains and one next to the station for road vehicles. The land quay runs almost to Cannitello and serves private car ferries. Seabeds are sandy, 3.5 to 5 m deep.

The port handles hundreds of railway cars daily, making it one of Europe's most important rail crossing points across a sea strait. This high rail traffic is less known than the vehicle ferry services but forms a major part of daily operations.