family with five kids ranging 4 to 17 using 4 country 5 day saverpass

There are no reclining seats on the Paris-Rome night train.

With a group your size you will definitely need to buy your supplements for sleeping accommodations on the night train ASAP. Popular night trains can sell out weeks in advance.

Have you already bought your railpasses? If not, you should know that point-to-point tickets can be cheaper than a pass, particularly if you book in advance on a country's national rail site and get discount fares. A railpass is rarely cost effective in Italy because P2P tickets are relatively inexpensive.

Do you mean Cambrai rather than Cambria?

Hi J.R.,

That is quite the group for the train! If you want to be sitting together, you may want to consider seat reservations in advance for some of the trips.

For the overnight train, it will count as one day so long as the train departs after 19:00. If it does, just mark the next day down on your railpass as the first day of travel (I presume it is a flexi saverpass?). You will need reservations in advance, even if you are not getting couchette bunks. Not all night trains offer regular seats, but many do - even so, there is a small reservation fee for each seat. For estimates of prices, take a look here and click on the "Seat, Couchette, and Sleeper Reservations for Overnight Trains". Also, click on "Couchettes" and "Sleeperettes" to see a quick description of the differences between just a seat, and a bunk in a couchette.

The train from Rome to Venice will most likely be an ES - a Eurostar Italia. Reservations are required on this train if you have a railpass, so do not hesitate to book your reservations in advance so that you can all sit together. It would be sufficient for you to wait until you arrive in Rome and book your reservations at the train station when you arrive.

For big groups you can save a lot by limiting your use of train passes. You should price a flight from Paris to Rome. Rent a van when you leave Rome (park on mainland and take a cheap local train into Venice) and return before Paris.

I think you could save better than $1,000 and have flexibilty to stop and go on your schedule (plus have transportation when you visit family). If you choose that option, buy a GPS now and learn to use it before your trip. Of course someone has to drive which may be worth a lot of money to avoid.

Why are you flying into Paris for just one night and then dealing with the hassles of getting to Rome? It seems that it would be easier and actually cheaper (time and euro-wise) in the long run to just fly into Rome and out of Paris.