Travel Time: Venice to CT (train)?

Forget RailEurope even exists and use the Deutsche Bahn website instead. (And yes, Florence is where you should go through.)

Rail Schedules

Figure about 6 hours.

Mathew,

To add to the previous comments, the trip from Venice to the CT is very easy.

For example, using the Trenitalia website and an arbitrary date, I found a train departing Venezia Santa Lucia at 09:27, arriving La Spezia at 14:19 (time 4H:52M, one change at Firenze SMN, reservations compulsory, 2nd class fare €51.20). From La Spezia you can easily transfer to the local train for transport to any of the CT villages.

This example only covers transport to La Spezia. When you buy your ticket, specify your end destination. The cost will be slightly higher, but that way you won't have to buy another ticket when you reach La Spezia.

Travel from the CT to Rome is also very easy. There's a direct train from La Spezia Centrale to Roma Termini with a travel time as short as 3H:44M (again, reservations compulsory, 2nd class fare of €45.50). You didn't specify which of the villages you'd be staying in, so this estimate only covers the trip from La Spezia to Rome.

One final point - fares listed above are subject to change, so these may be different at the time you're travelling (but probably not by much).

Happy travels!

Thank you everyone, all of the information has been a big help.