overnight train from amsterdam to Rome

IMO, this is your best route: Take a City Night Line train from Amsterdam Centraal to Zuerich, departing at 20:31 and arriving at 08:34. Connect to a Eurocity train departing Zuerich at 09:09 and arriving in Milano at 12:50. Connect to a EuroStar Italia train departing Milano at 13:15 and arriving in Roma at 16:45.

To see this for yourself, use the timetables on the German Rail site. After you get summary timetables for Amsterdam-Roma, click on the arrow to the left of the departure time(s) of your choice to see the connecting points.

Orianna, I realize you already have your Eurail Pass and that maybe you really want to take an overnight train but if you want a shorter trip, have you considered Easyjet? There's a 13:40 flight which arrives at 16:00 at FCO and depending on when you want to fly runs about E100 - E150 or so.

Thank you all for your responces. The lake was Lucerne. I know it would be easier to take a plane but we want to exerience the overnight train. We have 18 days total for Rome, Venice , chinqua Terra, Paris, nice, Barcelona,Toledo. Any ideas on order we should go and days spent in each place. We will end in Paris as we are taking the Chunnel back to England .

Somehow, the Bahn is telling me that that CNL train from Amsterdam leaves at 19:41, but I suspect that will all come out at ticketing time. The important thing is that it leaves after 7 PM, which means you only have to enter the following day on you rail pass. That gets you to Zürich the next morning, and you still have all day of your rail pass, so travel the rest of the way to Rome is covered, as well.

It looks like there is an hour faster connection using the same night train only to Basel, but that connection has 2 more changes of trains. That's probably not worth saving an hour.

That same CNL train splits somewhere in Germany and part of it gets to Munich at 7:16. EC85 leaves Munich at 9:31, you change to a EuroStar in Verona, and get into Rome at 6:50 PM, a couple of hours later, but still only using one day of the railpass (plus a surcharge for the ES).

The Munich route goes over Brenner Pass and through No. Italy. The Zürich route take the Gotthard line by Lakes Lugano and Como.

After I read Lee's note, I did some more checking on the German Rail site--and I'm glad I did! The CNL train that departs Amsterdam at 20:31 runs Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday-Saturday through 24 July. The first day for service on the CNL train departing at 19:41 is 25 July and that service will run every day.

Thank you?

Orianna, you should consider flying. EasyJet.com has a direct flight on that route that is only around 2.5 hours, and it is less than $100 a ticket.

Thank you all for your responces. I just can't believe how nice everyone has been to take the time to help us.

Orianna, do you realize you're talking about 24 hours on the train? You'll be exhausted by the time you get to Rome. Trust me, the overnight train is not that exciting.

to be honest we don't really know what we are doing. we were thinking to stop and see the rhine, stay overnight and continue on. Does that sound like a way to break up the train ride. Any other suggestions.