Paris/Florence Railpass vs. Point-to-point

First things first. Work out your day trips. Versailles is an RER ride for a pittance, so a rail pass doesn't apply. Both Rome and Venice are a couple of hours each way from Florence, which doesn't leave much time for looking around on a day trip. Make these decisions, then continue with your investigation.

Good advice, Ed. This will be only my second trip to Europe, and first time booking ground transportation, so please excuse my ignorance. I think we'll cut out the trip to Venice and try to spend a full day in Rome by taking an early morning train ride from Florence. With fewer travel days, it will make better sense for us to just get point-to-point tickets. Other thoughts or suggestions?

I'm not a train guy, but it looks okay to me. The experts will clear up the pass vs point-to-point costs.

Popular night trains can sell out weeks in advance. Book your Paris-Florence night train tickets NOW at www.tgv-europe.com. To keep the site in English and to avoid being bumped to the Rail Europe site which doesn't offer discount fares, choose Great Britain as your country of residence. The Flexi (standard) fare for a bed in a two-person sleeper is €180. The Depart Plus discount fare is €140. For honeymooners privacy is probably more important than price. However, if you're willing to share a four-bunk couchette with two other people, by booking now you can get a fare as low as €45/person. The standard 2nd class fare for Florence-Rome on high-speed EuroStar Italia AV trains is €45. Booked NOW at www.trenitalia.com, you may be able to get a Mini fare as low as €19.

My suggestion is to fly from Paris to Pisa or Florence. Then use trains for the other trips. Venice can be done as a day-trip from Florence. Get an early train (I think it takes 3 or so hours) to Venice, spend 6-8 hours there, then catch a late train back to Florence. I did this on my first trip to Europe and found it satisfactory. There are daytrips from Florence that work better by bus than train-to Siena, for instance. The bus station in Florence is near the train station. Rome is an easy daytrip from Florence. Plan your day and see as much as you can. For something low-key, take a train to Arezzo and walk the city from bottom to top and back down. The movie, Life is Beautiful, was made in Arezzo.

If you are insistent on doing the night train - it sounds romantic, especially on a honeymoon, but really isn't (I don't think) - have a look at what The Man in Seat 61 says about that travel. For some reason I can't get the link to work today, probably something in the url which it doesn't like. Try copying and pasting http://www.seat61.com/Italy.htm#The night trains from Paris to Italy ... He knows, and is highly respected.

If you follow Swan's suggestion to fly out of Paris, your cheapest budget airline choices are Beauvais-Pisa on Ryanair and Orly-Pisa on easyJet. My recommendation would be easyJet. Beauvais is a long bus ride from Paris. Take a train directly from the Pisa airport to Florence. Florence isn't served by any budget airlines.

... and it is your honeymoon, so there really isn't anywhere more romantic than Venice (my projection of what my wife and I find most romantic), especially if you get away from the crowds - yes it can be done....