What are the options to travel between Marseille (France) and Sicily?

Question

This summer I'll be in Marseille (France) to see friends and family, and we're thinking about visiting Sicily afterwards.

I'm actually weighing our options to go there with the following criteria :

• 1 car
• 3 persons
• 1 and a half week stay.
• No trip length and budget criteria (using only ferry, we'd save ~350e in gas alone), we just don't want to drive the 20+h one way from Marseille to Palermo on the mainland

I've rounded up three of my options here

1. Corsica Ferries advertise a Nice/Toulon - Tripani route (operated from April to September) which would fill the criteria nicely but it seems that it will not be operated this year as every site says that no departure are available (even for April)
2. Driving to some Italian port (like Genoa or Rome (Civitavecchia)) then take a ferry onwards
3. Taking the ferry to Sardaigna, drive to Cagliari, then onwards in the ferry to Sicily

I wonder if there are other options and/or if those ideas can be refined to be faster overall

Answer 1

These ferry routes seem to change a lot, at this time (2023) there is no ferry scheduled between Toulon and Trapani while many websites do list this option.

If you want to go by ferry to Sicily best is to leave and navigate from Italy. And to drive there from Nice/Marseille.

Genova would be your best option, this is a 3-hour ride from Nice. (Though in summer this can be a busy route) If you ride to Rome (Civitavecchia) there are also many nice tourist things you can do in between!

All the currently active routes however are listed here (more of a guide), or here (where you can book). You have probably already been on this trip but for future people trying to visit Sicily, I think this is very relevant!