The port of Villa San Giovanni (category II, class II) represents the main maritime connection node between Calabria and Sicily, allowing the docking of ferries operating in the Strait of Messina for the transport of people, wheeled vehicles (commercial and not) and railway trains. It has an entrance with a width of 230 m, a subsequent evolution basin with a diameter of 40 m, a body of water of 67,000 sq.m, with variable depths between 5 and 10 m and operational docks for a total of 1,228 m.
The port structure is closely connected to the railway one, so that you can directly access the train station from the sockets.
The ferry service is carried out by a navigation division of the I.R.N. (Italian Railway Network) and a private company.
The first uses 4 sockets; 3 of these, equipped with platforms for boarding railway trains (passengers or goods), are reserved for the docking of one-way ferries, used for the transport of railway vehicles and cars; the other dock is equipped for the loading/unloading of heavy wheeled vehicles on bidirectional ferries.
The SEZ port area is made up of the "state-owned maritime areas, the quays, the other port works and the opposite water bodies between the mouth of the Solaro stream to the south and the existing protective pier for the landing places of the tourist port that remains excluded from the territorial district as extended to the north "(Ministerial Decree 6 August 2013). Stretchs of water are excluded for the purposes of the SEZ. The area size included in the perimeter of the SEZ area corresponds to about 4 ha.