Italy Switzerland Rail Pass options

Hi rhtttbeam. Likely not a good idea to include Italy in a rail pass; for Italy, better to buy individual tickets; see trenitalia.com; use Italian station names Milano Centrale, Roma Termini, Firenze SMN, and whatever town in CT you plan to go to. More details about your itinerary would help; the order of your travels is not clear. Start by looking at train schedules and prices on trenitalia.com. The 'base' fare is what you will pay if you buy tix in Italy at the last minute. Enjoy your trip!

OK, I'll take a look at those sits. We are planning on the following

Train from Florence to Rome on 5/15. returning 5/17.
Train from Florence to Switzerland (Gimmelwald ultimately) leaving 5/18 returning 5/20.
Train from Florence to Venice on 5/21 and back on same day.
Similarly for Cinque Terra towns on 5/22 and back same day.

For Switzerland forget Eurail passes. Get some sort of Swiss Pass...probably this one is best suited for you:

http://www.swisstravelsystem.com/en/tickets-en/swiss-transfer-ticket-en.html

Any children < 16 years old involved in your trip? If so just request a free Swiss Family Card when you purchase your Swiss Transfer Ticket and the kids travel absolutely free with you wherever you go in Switzerland.

Because of using Florence as a home base, you are backtracking a few times over some fairly long distances. In this case, a 6-day Italy Saverpass can make sense at $263 per person in 2nd class or $324 in 1st, plus about $90 per person for seat reservation fees. (Compare to about $430 per person for buying regular 2nd-class rates as you go, with reservations included where required.)

Within Switzerland, consider a Swiss Saverpass, such as the version for 4 consecutive days at $287 per person in 2nd class or $344 per person in 1st. The Swiss passes cover more than a Eurail-brand pass would do, as described on the same link. Swiss passes do cover your whole train ride to Zermatt and to Gimmelwald. Lifts on the Matterhorr and up above Muerren or Wengen are discounted, not fully covered.

The Eurail Selectpass is now only available for 4 countries, not 3 or 5.

Note that if you book soon, you may still be able to take advantaged of discounted fares for Trenitalia. That savings is likely to outweigh the savings of the pass Laura mentioned.

Is there a reason why you keep returning to Florence rather than doing more of a stream-lined route? The travel time between Florence and Switzerland will especially eat up a lot of time, not giving you a great amount of time to see the area.

Daughter is studying abroad based in Florence. So we are using that as a home base and spending some days there.

Is she traveling with you on these trips? If so, to me it would make more sense when you leave Rome to go straight to your next destination (Switzerland in this case) and when you leave Switzerland, go straight to Venice for a night or two, then enjoy time in Florence and see CT. You won't see much in Florence if you are there for one night on the 18th between Rome and Switzerland. You could also add a night either to Rome or Gimmelwald if you travel straight from one to the other. It'll also give you more time to see Venice and will cut down on your travel time a little too if you're not going down to Florence, only to head back toward Venice the next day. You may have thought this all through already, I'm not trying to tell you you're doing it wrong, I just don't see a large appeal in the back and forth nature of your plans.

So if I buy an Italy pass and a Swiss pass, how does it work when I go from Florence to Zermatt. I'm assuming there is a border station that I transfer from Italy train system to Swiss system. How does that work?