Cheapest, time saving way to commute from Florence to Brussels

Flying from Paris to Venice is a good choice. Taking a plane from Venice to Rome is not. The high speed train is much faster, once you include the time to transfer from/to airports and security procedures. The train stations are right in the middle of the city centers. In any case your itinerary makes no sense. From Venice you should take a train to Florence first, which is on the way from Venice to Rome, half way in between. Then you go to Rome. Venice to Florence is 2 hrs via train. Florence to Rome is 90 min. Then when you are done with Rome, you can fly from Rome, which is one of the largest EU airports, back to Brussels. Rome will have more flight choices (and therefore better prices). From Rome Fiumicino (FCO) you can fly non-stop to Brussels (BRU) with Brussels Airline or Alitalia. From Rome Ciampino (CIA) you can fly the low cost airline Ryanair to Brussels South Charleroi Airport (CRL). From Florence FLR to Brussels BRU, the only choice is Brussels airline, which is probably the one you saw online. They are the only game in town in that segment, so they are going to charge a lot. Follow the itinerary I told you: PARIS - VENICE (fly) - 1.5 hrs (plus airport transfer time) VENICE - FLORENCE (train) - 2 hrs FLORENCE - ROME (train) - 1.5 hrs
ROME - BRUSSELS (fly) - 2 hrs (plus airport transfer time)

Roberto has laid out a perfect itinerary for you. I just hope you haven't booked any different tickets that are not refundable, because his route will save you both time and money over the one you proposed.

Roberto -
What great suggestions! Thanks a lot. Quick question though; what is the best way to purchase train tickets for rides in Italy - buy in advance/buy on the spot? Question 2: traveling from city center of Rome to CIA train station - what are my best options? What are some of the quickest vis-à-vis money saving options? Again, thanks in advance for your response.

If you buy in advance (120 days) on www.trenitalia.com you might get a chance to snatch a discounted ticket (Economy or SuperEconomy). Those are heavily discounted prices over the full Base price of 45 euro o/w from Venice to Florence (I think Florence to Rome is about the same price, check on Trenitalia.com). However discounted tickets come with strings attached. They are non refundable and non changeable, therefore you must be sure of your travel plans, because if you don't make that specific train at that specific time, you are out of luck and you basically lost your money. The SuperEconomy are as low as 19 euro, I think, therefore it might be worthwhile the investment. If you can't get a discounted ticket (they sell out quickly), then you might as well purchase on the spot. There is a train or two every hour along that route, therefore they never run out of seats. The 2nd class ticket, as I said, is 43-45 euro (VE-FI or FI-RM). First class (if you want to travel in style) is about 50% more.

More than one way from Rome to Ciampino. 1. Metro (subway) to Anagnina, then Co.Tra.L bus to Ciampino. 2. Train to Ciampino station, then bus to CIA airport. 3. Taxi (about 40 euro) 4. Bus directly from Rome Termini (main) station to CIA airport. The one most used (also most convenient for the price, IMO) is probably the bus directly from Rome Termini to the CIA airport (40 min travel for 4 to 6 euro). The bus departs from Roma Termini (on the Northern side of the station) and drops you off at the CIA airport terminal. There is more than one company doing that, one is Terravision, one is SitBus. Here are their websites. Take a pick: http://www.sitbusshuttle.com/en/ciampino/
http://www.terravision.eu/

Remember that if you take Ryanair to Charleroi that 1) it is in the middle of nowhere, like most Ryanair airports and nowhere near Brussels, and 2) that they are the kings of the nickle-and-diming operations and your final price is likely to be much higher than what you initially found.