Raileurope.com?

One-stop shopping is a benefit of Rail Europe. The Swiss site, www.sbb.ch, can sell tickets from Paris to Basel and from the Swiss border to Milan. Tickets from Milan to Venice are sold at Trenitalia.com or in train stations in Switzerland.

When I get my tickets how would reserve the seats ? Online thru the website ? I heard in Italy you have to reserve your seat prior to getting on the train ?

Most high-speed trains in Europe are similar to airline tickets. The train ticket will include your seat assignment. The only exception would be most ICE trains in Germany, they do require separate seat reservations.

To buy train tickets, the best place to look is the web site of the country where the train originates. Here's a list, from The Man In Seat 61: http://tinyurl.com/bo8x6o6

From Paris to Switzerland, you have already been told about SNCF: http://en.voyages-sncf.com/en/ and Capitaine Train: https://www.capitainetrain.com/en

For Switzerland to Venice, use Swiss Rail: http://www.sbb.ch/en/home.html

For Venice to Rome, use Trenitalia: http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=4ddd1a035296f310VgnVCM1000005817f90aRCRD

You can also investigate their competitor, Italo: http://www.italotreno.it/EN/Pages/default.aspx

Note that Italo uses Roma Tiburtina station instead of Roma Termini station, but it gets great reviews from those who've taken it. Both Trenitalia and Italo use Venice Santa Lucia station.

As Michael said, when you buy tickets on these websites, any mandatory reservations will be included, and if there are optional reservations, you can purchase them when buying.

For Italy, start with www.trenitalia.com. You can buy advance purchase nonrefundable tickets here at the best price. You can also print them out at home, so you have the tickets immediately.
Some people have had some difficulties with www.trenitalia.com, so the next best thing is www.italiarail.com. They sell tickets in US Dollars, and you can compare the prices with the ones on trenitalia. You'll see that, after adjusting for the currency exchange, they are $2-$3 more expensive, but easier to pay for and you can still print at home immediately.
For traveling from Switzerland to Italy, you can buy at www.sbb.ch. You can print at home or pick up at any Swiss railway station while you are there. If your Swiss Pass is active, It is free all the way to Domodossola, then you just pay for the Italian portion. Your best price may be to only buy as far as Milano Centrale. Then buy a second separate ticket using an Italian Freccia high speed train to Venice. You could buy that from www.italiarail.com.

I suppose it all depends on how badly you want to save money. If you don't care about price and don't want to bother with learning the ins and outs of train travel, you can just throw up your hands and buy from Rail Europe and be done with it. That is the service they provide, at a price.

ok I'm getting that part but how about selecting my seats i went on both italian sites but either asked me about my seating arrangements i want to sit next to the person i am with.

Trenitalia.com does have a seat selection option, but if you miss the icon, they will try to seat you together if possible. If your seat numbers are a couple of digits apart, don't worry, that's how the numbering system rums, row number should be the same. The ticket will also show a car number, this number will be posted on or near the door of the car, be sure you get to the correct one.

We have bought many tickets for a group of four on Trenitalia and also SBB.ch (for travel from Switzerland into Italy). In every case our group was seated together. Tickets were purchased a month or so in advance.

Dear Rudy,
I have the best luck when I call Rail Europe and talk to an agent and book with them. It is so easy and they can answer any questions.

Rail Europe does not list all available trains and is more expensive. Go to the country you are leaving from and use their sit to book trains. SNCF for France, etc. Most train sites in Europe allow you to print tickets at home. I did Dublin to London (rail/sail option) via Holyhead, London to Paris, Paris to Strasbourg, Strasbourg to Paris, Paris to London, London to Dublin (rail/sail option) all on line and had all tickets in hand except the Ferry tickets which included the train tickets from Holyhead to London and back which I picked up at the Ferry terminal in Dublin at the counter. I had a printed receipt from the Irish Ferries that I showed the counter person and all was a go.

JB

Just be sure you understand that RailEurope is a travel agency and not a train company. They are good at providing a fairly high level of customer service and a lot of hand holding if you need that but they have to make money so they charge more for their services. It is the American way. RailEurope does not sell discounted ticket that you might be able to get on the national train sites. But if they fulfill your needs, use 'em.

I recently bought two tickets for my upcoming vacation. For the first one, Rail Europe had the same low price on the ticket I wanted as the French rail site, so I bought it on Rail Europe -- it's a much easier site to use. For the second ticket, Rail Europe was significantly more expensive, so I bought my ticket on the Swiss rail site. It was more complicated to figure out, but it was worth my time to save some money. In my experience, Rail Europe is usually considerably higher and has less choices, but I always check. If it's less than $10, I usually go with Rail Europe. It's so much easier, and they have a much nicer website.

I remain baffled given Rick's frugality and distribution of so many details about travel, that staff continue to tout RailEurope and there remains a link to that website.

I am sure it can vary. But for me that website never had the best price...Never bought on there although I check it from time to time. Pretty much always buy in person or though country's official rail website.