Belgium to Bologna to Ravenna

There are direct trains from Liege to Paris and from Paris to Milan. At Milano Centrale station you can take one of the many direct trains to Bologna. One change is not bad if both trains in Paris arrive at and depart from the same station. Check if this is the case, SNCF loves complicating train travel.

Most (all?) of the Bologna-Ravenna trains have no reserved seating and can't sell out. Just look up the schedules on trenitalia.com/en.html when you are in Milan and buy a through ticket to Ravenna via app.

Both Bologna and Ravenna are wonderful cities with fantastic sights. Could you arrive in Italy with enough time to spend a couple of days in each? If not, I might lean towards Ravenna as you generally need to go through Bologna (or Ferrera) to get to Ravenna. Bologna is a main train hub and you could easily incorporate time there on a future trip.

Depending on what you are looking for, Bologna and Ravenna are very different experiences. Bologna is a good-sized city (larger than Florence) with lots of restaurants and a large university -- while it doesn't have the big name art attractions like Florence and Rome, it is a beautiful city with many things to do. Ravenna is quite small in comparison, but is charming and the Byzantine mosaics are absolutely spectacular. Ravenna is easily reached by local train from Bologna -- it's about an hour each way. One other thing to take into account about Ravenna -- if you are there on a Monday, while the mosaic sites are open, virtually everything else in town is closed.

The direct train from Liège-Guillemin to Paris arrives in Paris-Nord. You will have to transfer to Paris-Gare de Lyon station (RER D 8 minutes) for a direct train to Bologna.

Another option might be to travel by direct trains from Liège-Guillemin to Brussels-Midi or Aachen and from there to take the nighttrain European Sleeper to Milano-Porta Garibaldi

https://www.europeansleeper.eu/milan

There are direct trains between Milano Porta Garibaldi and Bologna.

As much as I generally enjoy train travel, I would rather poke my eye with a stick than travel all that way in one fell swoop. 12-13 hours, schlepping my bags off and on multiple trains, and hoping I can get a to go breakfast and lunch at one of the stations? Not for me. I would prefer a short train to the airport, then a non stop flight of 1hr 40 min, gettng to Bologna by mid afternoon. YMMV

I can't thank you enough for sharing your insights, experience, and expertise. Rick Steves people are wonderful! I went to a travel show this last winter in Washington DC and was lucky enough to hear Rick speak and say hi to him and thank him personally for helping me learn how to be a traveler instead of a tourist.

Special thanks to the person who frankly commented on the unpleasantness of lengthy train travel in one fell swoop. I hear you. And I agree. You have motivated me to break the trip up into manageable morsels and enjoy the journey a lot more.

Breaking up the trip between Belgium and Ravenna is a good idea if you have the time. Keep in mind the sunset times at that time of year. If you arrive at your interim stop in late afternoon you may only have an hour or 2 of available daylight. At least you could have a bit of a walk, a nice dinner and a comfortable bed before getting on the train again.