Italy Rail pass or not?

My guess is separate tickets because the Italian Rail pass is only very rarely a good value. But the best way to find out is to price your trips and compare to the rail pass. Use the "Rail pass" button on the blue bar on this site. To get a more exact figure, use The trenitalia site. If you know when you will make each trip and don't mind locking the times in, you can save a bundle by purchasing in advance.

And remember that all trains in Italy except Regional require a seat reservation and that is an extra 10E even with a rail pass.

You train runs from Florence to the Cinque Terre and from the CT to Nice will be mostly Regionale trains. These are really cheap train runs. Not worth a pass. The runs from Venice to Rome and from Rome to Florence are high-speeds. Fares are 80E and 43E respectively. Florence to the CT is 15E. If this is the extent of your train travel in Italy, you really don't need a pass. Two extra pieces of information. You can get great discounts on the high-speed runs on www.trenitalia.com if you are willing to accept restricted tickets and a firm departure time. Second, with a pass, you'll pay a 10E supplemental for each of the high-speeds that you will be on.

sara, As the others have mentioned, a Railpass is rarely a good option in Italy, especially when making so few trips. One point to clarify though. I'd suggest re-arranging your order slightly, and travel Venice > Florence > Rome > Cinque Terre > Nice. That will be a more efficient route. If you'd like more specific details on trains on those routes, post another note. Are you definite on always travelling in First Class? I generally travel Second Class, and have found the seats to be very comfortable, especially on the fast Freccia trains. Happy travels!