Punctuality of regional trains

Marie, I'm sad that you didn't like your answers. None of us here is a paid guidebook writer or tour seller like the sponsor of this website. We are all just experienced (many very very experienced) fellow travelers, like you. We may not all have the polished soft tones of our sponsor but we do have the best interests at heart of the people who post questions here. Now I will tell my answer and hope you don't chop my head off. This is not a criticism as you don't appear to like that, but a question. Your thread title is Punctuality of regional trains yet your question appears to contrast .ItaloTreno and Trenitalia high speed trains. I find both the Freccia and .Italo trans very good, very prompt, and very comfortable. A 30 minute connection onto a sleeper would be enough for me and in an hour I would find dinner before boarding the train. I was in Bologna and Firenze earlier this year and I remember that any Regionale trains from Firenze towards Bologna and onwards north towards Padova take a round about and slow route with usually a change in Prato. I think there are only one or perhaps two Inter City trains a day, but if you get the Inter City (I did and remember it about 10 minutes late to Bologna) it goes from Campo de Marte rather than SMN. I'd stick with the fast trains on that connection, and if you get your (non refundable) reservations in early enough they can be quite cheap.

First of all the difference in comfort between Trenitalia and Italo is not really significant at all. I would look at the price options and time convenience more than anything else. One hour is way more than sufficient. It's unlikely a high speed train is more than a couple of minutes late.

First question. Why not take the Thello train from Florence to Paris? Second question. For a 1 1/2 hour train ride, is the narrow difference between the comfort level of the Italo and the Freccia trains worth worrying about?
One hour should be plenty of time. Having said that, nothing in this world is guaranteed (except death and taxes).

Personally I would have flown to Paris, because the train is a long long way to go and I find it really hard to sleep on trains. @ Sam: I don't think the night train option is available from FLorence anymore, but I can be wrong. Regarding everything being certain except for death and taxes, most people in Italy will agree with only the first one. The second one, they'll tell you, can be evaded.

@ Roberto, It is scheduled to go this Saturday from Florence Campo di Marti at 21:34.
The statement is attributed to Benjamin Franklin, a would-be British tax collector until he figured out that the Stamp Act might get him tarred and feathered.

Roberto and Sam, thank you for your helpful responses. I could have done without the judgment and second-guessing, however. Rick Steves always seems so sweet that I really wasn't prepared for that! Since you asked, Thello serves Florence from Campo di Marte, not Santa Maria Novella, and the Venice train arrives in Paris before the Florence train. In addition, the total cost from Florence on Italo/Trenitalia and Thello rather than just Thello is lower. So I'm saving on both train fare and a hotel room (which I'd have to pay for if I flew). Anyway, thanks for the info.

Did some "judgmental" and "second guessing" responses get removed? Because all I'm seeing here is helpful information. One of the pieces of information that gets shared a lot on this board is that many (possibly most) people who take a night train end up regretting it. You're always free to ignore any such feedback. True, you only asked about the regionale train reliability, but there are other issues that you might not have considered, given the context of your question. If someone asks me if they can use Microsoft Excel to write a letter, I'm not just going to say "Yes," even though you can. I'm going to say, "Yes, but there are other options that might work better for you, like Microsoft Word." (Hey, I'm from Seattle, so that's the example that came to mind.) I hope this works out well for you. Happy travels.