Can I get a railpass and avoid renting a car?

Have you purchased your airline tickets? Because the first thing to consider is an open jaw ticket. Fly into Venice and come home from Rome and saving the time and expense of back tracking to Venice. You can do it all by train/bus and most likely point to point tickets will be cheaper than a pass. However, a car might be useful for few days in and around CT. You need to plan your route and do a like price checking prior to any decision about a rail pass. And do not use the RailEurope site for pricing.

Buon giorno Abigail! As Frank Centennial says, consider flying openjaws: for example, into Venice and out of FLR, PSA or MXP. Since you'll only be in Italy, it's highly likely that purchasing train tickets point-to-point will be cheaper (much) than a railpass which could also require reservation fees for some trains.
Regarding day trips just be sure to spend enough time in the towns where you are staying! If you use the DeutschBahn site you can figure out travel times & duration to see if a day trip is worth the time on the trains for you. Hope this helps!

I agree with Darcy's advice. A rail pass is generally not useful in Italy, but do some math to figure it out. There's no need to rent a car if you don't want to. It'll be useless everywhere except the CT, and you can get around CT by train just fine.

One side note, don't overlook taking a bus, which is a much better option for doing the Siena-Florence route.

I hadnt thought about open-jaw, i will have to look into that, it makes alot of sense. Thanks for the tip on the siena-Florence bus ride, i hadnt thought about taking the bus. Thank you everyone for your input. its much appreciated!

Traveling by train will deliver you to your destination relaxed and, usually, in or near the city center. Arriving by car will give you freedom to take side trips or change your itinerary at a moment's notice. They both have advantages and disadvantages. Sometimes I use trains and cars, depending on where I will visit. If you drive consider buying a gps with European maps. I took my gps last summer and it was invaluable. A car in a city is a liability with expensive parking and the restricted driving zones resulting in tickets being mailed to your home. You can take side trips using buses, which will require more planning on your part. If you choose the trains, buy your tickets point-to-point from the kiosk machines instead of buying a rail pass.

Flying open jaw is a great idea and I use it almost every year when I go to Italy. It will save you time by not needing to backtrack maximizing touring time. It is also cheaper, sometimes.

Buon viaggio,

RB

Flying open jaws mnormally makes sense. But
Venice is only 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours by train from Bologna and it would be a lot easier to get flights from Venice than Bologna. I love Venice, so anything for another night in Venice.
But if your only going to Bologna because it's on the way back to Venice, you might want to spend an extra day or two somewhere else anf fly fly out of Florence, Pisa, Milan etc.

Yes you can get a railpass. However I have yet to see a posting by someone who says that a railpass was a better deal then buying point-to-point tickets in Italy. Not only will you pay more, you won't get any convenience. For the faster trains you will need reservations even if you have a railpass, so you'll still be going to train stations and using the kiosk (recommended) or standing in line for the counter.

Traveling by train is a good idea; the railpass is not. Almost every train station (and certainly all of the larger ones) have kiosks that are no harder to use than an ATM and have an english menu. You can either buy as you go for more flexibility, or buy them all at once when you arrive in Italy.

I agree that the train is the way to go. All of your destinations are easy to reach by train and you don't need a car in any of them. (Nor do you want one is some places like Florence).

The one thing I haven't seen mentioned which is very important is that you MUST validate your tickets just before use. If not, and caught, the fine can be high. Just look for the yellow validation machines.

In Italy we find a car rental is really of most benefit when out in the country. Even then, depending on what places you want to go to, it may not be necessary. What other towns do you plan on visiting from Siena? If the bus/train schedules don't quite work out, then maybe a one day rental from there. For larger cities, a car can be a much bigger hindrance than a help. I agree with the others, if you haven't booked your air yet, look at flying home from either Pisa, Florence or Rome.

I'd like to ask about the rail pass vs. point to point tickets. We are going to Italy over Easter for 3 weeks with 5 people (2 adults; 3 kids under 11). Rome - Venice - CT - Florence - Rome. I checked out the Italy train website and it appears that buying a rail pass (4 uses in 1 month) will save us at least 50-60 Euro per person when I ran the total for each of the individual tickets per each leg. (i.e. at least 300 Euro total saved on the trains for the family -- and this is for the fast trains except to CT.).

I know every posting always says purchase point to point at the kiosk, but for this many people and trips, it appears that the railpass is cheapest. Am I missing something? Thanks!