Paris - Venice - Florence - Rome

From TGV-Europe.com, you can look up p2p tickets for Paris-Venice:

Paris-Venice Santa Lucia on 21st: 95E in Second Class; 122E in First Class

Check out Italian tickets on Trenitalia. This website is a little buggy- don't be afraid to play around with it.
Venice Mestre-Florence SMN on 24th: 32.30 (EuroStar train - faster)

Florence SMN-Rome on 27th: 24.50
Rough Total: 152E

Seems to me like you'd be better off with point to point tickets. Use the website above to purchase tickets online. If you have trouble, don't worry - just reply to this post and one of us would be happy to help you.

Have fun in Europe!

Thank you SO much!

Do you think I need to purchase my tickets before I go over there? I am going to be traveling over the Holiday's so I'm not sure if that will be a problem.

Normally, I would just buy the night train reservation. However, you are traveling during the holidays, and tickets may sell faster than normal. I would buy them in advance. You'll guarantee a spot on the train and probably save money. When booking on Paris-Venice on TGV-Europe.com, change the country of collection to GREAT BRITAIN. This will allow you to book in English and access discounted fares.

I'll add a couple of things to Martine's post. Even though you will pick up your night train ticket in Paris, when you go to tgv-europe.com you need to choose Great Britain as your country of residence as well as choosing Great Britain as the country in which you will retrieve the ticket. If you choose the USA as your country of residence, you will be bumped to the Rail Europe site and you will pay more for the ticket. If you choose France as the country for ticket retrieval, you will be bumped to the French language version of the site. Don't worry. You will be allowed to pick up your ticket in Paris at the station by presenting the confirmation number you'll be given and the credit card you used when booking.

The Trenitalia site currently does not accept North American credit cards. Buy your Venice-Florence and Florence-Rome tickets as soon as you arrive in Venice. The ticket machines at the station accept North American credit cards and have an English option. Try to get Amica fares (20% discount). If any of the allotted number of seats are still available, Amica fares are sold up until midnight of the day before departure. I doubt if you'll be able to get that fare for 24 December, but you might succeed for 27 December.

There are eight daytime trains for Venice Santa Lucia-Florence. Most are direct (no changes). Since you'll be traveling on 24 December, you may not get a seat on the train of your choice; but you should be able to get a seat on one of them. However, I can't guarantee this, of course. If you want to play it safe either for getting the train of your choice or getting any ticket at all, buy your Venice-Florence ticket now at raileurope.com.

Shannon,

If you want to get a "rough" idea of the cost of P-P tickets, check the "Time & Cost Map" at www.ricksteves.com/rail/comparetickets.htm (there's lots of other good information in that section also).

As you're going to Europe for the first time, I'd strongly recommend reading the "Rail Skills" section in Europe Through The Back Door (if you haven't read this already).

Good luck and happy travels!

Thanks for that addendum, Tim. I didn't know about Trenitalia discriminating against American credit cards. Happy travels, Shannon!

Thank you all! I have my ticket to Venice and I will purchase the rest when I get to Europe!