Family travel to Italy June 30-July 15

Railpasses are a waste of money in Italy. If you already know you definite dates of travel, yes, by all means buy them early from www.trenitalia.com so that you can get the greatly reduced saver fares on the high speed trains.

How about Italotreno vs trentitalia? We know our travel days, but don't have set travel times. Is there more flexibility in one vs the other?

I don't know how easy it is to get to Praiano from Naples, but if you take a train to Salerno, you can take a Ferry (or in the worst case, a bus) to Amalfi or Positano and then a bus or taxi to Praiano.....just an fyi

You can definitely buy tickets the day of your train if you are unsure of the time you want, but buying in advance could be much cheaper....

All good information from you both, thanks. We were thinking of a car rental, but not sure if it's cost effective. Does anyone know based on our itinerary? Also, can we easily purchase train tickets 1 day ahead at a train station and save money that way? There seems to be no full refunds on train travel if you make advance purchases. Is the difference for advance that much different?

For all train travel in Italy, you certainly can purchase any of the tickets 1-2 days in advance. Actually, you can purchase most on the same day of travel. Expect to pay full base fare. Usually the discounts are gone by the day of travel. If you want discounted tickets, you can purchase in advance. Yes, they are non-refundable but you say you know your travel dates. Just go online and pick a travel time. You do this for your plane tickets. It's just as easy for the train tickets. As an alternative, you can use Italo for Rome-Tiburtina (not Rome-Termini) to Naples and from Naples to Florence. Fares are similar. Travel times are similar. Nice new trains.

You don't need any kind of rail pass in Italy. Point-to-point fares are just fine. If you have a Eurail pass, Trenitalia has supplemental fees waiting for you to ride the nicer fast trains. 10Euro extra to get your reservations and seat assignments. You will be riding a few of them. Italo does not accept the Eurail pass. Note that the Marozzi bus from Rome to Priano only runs once a day.

How about Italotreno vs trentitalia?
They are both about the same. Italotreno is a new private train that uses the trenitalia facilities. Since Italotreno is smaller it do not service all locations AND sometimes used different stations in the cities. Just double stations used. Some say that Italotreno is little nicer because they are using newer equipment.

You won't want a car for the big cities on your list. Using the Time & Cost map at http://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation/trains/cost-maps to estimate regular, 2nd class fares, the 4 legs Rome-Naples-Florence-Venice-Milan add up to roughly $265 to buy tickets there on short notice, with seat assignments included (or maybe round up to $285 at today's exchange rate). The 2nd-class Italy Saverpass for 4 days of travel currently costs $237 per person, plus seat reservation fees at $15/each, totaling $297. So there's no benefit to a pass for covering this distance. You may get some cheaper tickets if you're ready to book ahead, e.g., for your longer, Venice-Luzern travel day.

This is a great forum-Invaluable information!!